ON the first day of the Notts match with Somerset at Trent Bridge on Wednesday, I launched my Little Siddy Club.

It is an idea I’ve had that I hope will get more kids, boys and girls of all ages, interested in playing and watching cricket.

By joining the club they will get the chance to meet myself and some of the Notts players, get their autographs get tickets for games, including Twenty20 matches, and a goodie bag.

There will also be coaching sessions put on at Trent Bridge and a draw for one lucky winner to win a full kit.

Hopefully among those kids will be a potential next Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, or maybe even a Ryan Sidebottom!

The game of cricket has given me plenty, so this is a way I am looking to give something back.

If I can do my bit with my profile as a Notts and England cricketer, to get youngsters off the streets and playing sport, then that can only be good.

I have set this up as part of my benefit year and I am helping to raise money for local children’s hospices as part of that.

But I would also ideally like to take it a step further when I eventually finish playing and set up my own hospice.

Freddie Flintoff has done something similar and raised a lot of money. I would love to do the same.

When you have your own children it makes you want to improve other kids’ lives as well.

Anyone interested in joining the club should go to my website at www.ryansidebottom.com

IT’S been a strange week sitting around with the suitcase packed, ready to go.

The volcanic ash from Iceland has grounded flights in and out of Britain for much of the week, which thrown our flight out to the ICC World Twenty20 in doubt.

It has meant we have had to prepare for every eventuality and have been waiting on a phone call from the ECB.

We have been hoping to fly out tomorrow, which now looks likely, but we’ve been prepared to travel by coach if necessary.

We have seen Liverpool doing it to help them reach Madrid and if it had happened to us we would have just have got on with it.

There are plenty of people who have been stuck around the world for days unable to get home, so there are people a lot worse off.

It’s not too different to being with your county and travelling around the country for matches, back to basics if you like.

I suppose the only downside is being on a coach with Swanny for hours on end. We won’t get a moment’s peace!

I’m pleased with the shape I’m in ahead of getting out to the West Indies. I had a good 18 overs at Durham in Notts’ last warm-up game of pre-season and then played my part in our County Championship victory over Kent last week.

The ball was swinging, I got one or two wickets and I didn’t go for many runs, so I was pretty satisfied.

We were struggling early on with the bat a little but then we fought back well and it was a great, heard-working bowling effort.

It is important to get a good start this season as we have a number of home games to begin the campaign. That is where we know conditions best and it can help our seam attack.

Durham is going to be a big game for us in May. They have not started as well as some might have expected, but they are still a very strong outfit. They could have Harmy (Steve Harmison) in their attack too by then.

We were shown up by them last year, losing both our four-day games with them by an innings, and if we are going to win the title, we have to do much better against them.