The...Eighty

I had originally purchased a trip to The Hundred as a gift for Father’s Day.

As you can tell, it had been booked for a while, so it stood to reason that as the day drew nearer and the forecast worsened, the likelihood of seeing any cricket at all had dwindled to nothing.

Regardless, we decided to make the trip to Old Trafford Cricket Ground and try our luck. We met up with my boss - there with his daughter and friend - for a hot chocolate and milled around for a while. With the women’s game soon cancelled, we were tempted to go home, but decided to stay until at least 2.30pm for the men’s kick-off and were glad that we did. 

In between times, m’boy high-fived the promotional Wombat character doing the rounds, got a free t-shirt from him too (courtesy of a usefully tall grandfather when t-shirts were being lobbed into the crowd), appeared on the big screens around the ground and was the only one to get a tour of the members-only pavilion!

The weather fared up for 2.30pm and the game was under way for a short time, in which period; Jos Buttler (former England cricketer) had smashed the ball all around (and almost out of) the ground! The atmosphere was electric and though it may anger the purists, The Hundred is easily the most accessible and fun version of cricket. 

On one side of me, M’boy was loving every moment, whilst on the other my father sat with his head in his hands at the display of some of the worst fielding I have ever seen. It was brilliant! 

We stayed for the first rain delay and wound up watching 80 balls, but on the second it was obvious that the rain had set in, so we set off for home.

Fantastic day (extras) and would recommend it to anyone - just try and pick a dry day.