Every year I hear people talking about whether summer or winter is their favourite season, and I only have one answer, my favorite season is by far cricket season. From April through to September, my life revolves around fitting in going to any games I can around revision and work and spending many sunny afternoons or Friday nights at the cricket, either cheering on or moaning about my teams, definitely more of the latter this season. 2017 cricket season was a fabulous one with some new grounds visited and some amazing play witnessed...
Firstly, I spend a large percentage of my cricket season supporting my home county, Warwickshire and this season, that hasn't been easy at some points. The county championship this year on my occasions proved painful to watch with loss after loss and that ended with us being relegated into Division 2, with serious improvements needed next season. This also was made no better by the numerous cold, and windy days in April where I went and froze at Edgbaston just to see our batting collapse. All I can say is, thank god for Jonathon Trott. After last year beating Surrey to become One Day Champions, we went into the RLODC with a great win over Northants in out first game, however thats where the wins started and ended with us not managing to qualify for the quarters, meaning our title defence was over.
However, there was much more to shout about in our T20 campaign, where we made it all the way to the final! Many friday nights were spent cheering on our fresh and new look t20 team, with plenty of bursting talent such as Ed Pollock and Aaron Thomason, the team was playing some exciting and great cricket...finally! We got through the quarters final which was a tough contest from Surrey at The Oval, a game I had to unfortunately watch in a bar in Lanzarote while hearing how amazing it was from friends who were there, and we had reached Finals day, which after the season we had in other tournaments was a great thing to cheer about! Unfortunately losing to Notts in the final meant we missed out on the silverware, but we will be back next year to take it just like we did in 2014. Supporting Warwickshire this season has undoubtedly had its lows such as the low first innings totals, the freezing cold days, the lack of Ian Bell runs and relegation but on the plus side they offered free cake on the first day of each championship game so I am not complaining too much.
When I wasn't at a Warwickshire game, I was watching England in their international games, and first of this summer for me was the Champions Trophy game which provided a welcome day off work & revision. England Vs Australia, a full house at Edgbaston, a whole stadium displaying their dislike to the Aussies, what more could you want! The atmosphere at this game is up there with one of the best I have been involved in, as the Aussies continued to lose wickets, the fans continued to wave them off the pitch. Then came a magnificent Stokesy century before the rain came, but England had won! Beating the Aussies and knocking them out the tournament while we progressed equals a good day at the office!
A spontaneous cricket trip is always welcome as well, when it was decided to buy tickets for Day 4 of England Vs South Africa at Trent Bridge, I was completely up for this. The cricket was slightly disappointing as England had to bat out Day 4 & 5 to get a draw, but they only managed to just before tea on Day 4 and were bowled for 133. At least the sun was shining and it was the only day of cricket this year I managed to wear a skirt at without being cold and changing into jeans...so it was worth it!
Through visiting various grounds this season I went down to visit one of my best friends, Lettie, who is a Kent supporter and we were going to The Oval test match together and she offered to show me Canterbury Cricket Ground, so of course I said yes. We took a trip to watch Kent Vs Somerset, and saw a Kent win, which apparently at the time was a rarity, much like Warwickshire so I would like to class myself as a Good Luck charm in the hope of going back. Canterbury is a lovely, sweet ground, and it made a nice change from a stadium to be able sit and watch the game from a grass bank, and Kent offered a free cider with every ticket, so that was an added bonus!
In the trip to Lettie, we also went to The Oval to watch Day 2 of the England Vs South Africa test match, where we witnessed another amazing Stokesy century to dig England out of trouble, for the millionth time. I also met Joe Root at this game, and if you know me well, you'll know this did make my day when he was his always lovely self. This test was Toby Roland-Jones' debut test match as well, a massive occasion for him which he lived up to by taking a 5fer, of which we saw 4 of these wickets to have South Africa on the ropes! The Stokes innings and bowling performance from TRJ made this one hell of a day test cricket and was great to tick another new ground off this season, I would highly recommend a visit to The Oval as its a fab ground with some very funny stewards who provided plenty of entertainment at the lunch & tea intervals.
My final England game of the summer was the First Day/Night Test Match in England, at my favourite ground of them all, Edgbaston. I was very excited for Edgbaston to be putting on this test match and was also excited to see the prospect of D/N test cricket in England. The verdict is, its bloody cold! It may work in Aus, but in England where we had to have a blanket over us, I am not so sure. Nevertheless, as we turned up and lighting was striking, I wasn't sure how much cricket we would actually see, but the sun came out and that allowed us to see one hell of an innings from Cooky, who scored 243, batted Chef! The rain however began to fall again and the actual night part of the test was rained off for that Day. There was nothing like a day of Test cricket to help get over the trauma of A-level results day which didn't go as planned. Cricket is always my go to when you need something to take your mind of something. The innings from Cooky was one of the best all season I have seen, an absolute masterclass from an absolute legend.
I always say one of the best things about cricket is the people you meet through it, and this cricket season I met some pretty hilarious and lovely people, as well as spending time with the long loved besties, who were always up for a drink or cocktail at the cricket! Meeting people through cricket is one of my favorite things as the people love the same thing you do, and getting to know them is brilliant as well.
To celebrate the end of the season, we fancied a night at the Warwickshire End Of Season Dinner, to celebrate success, not that there was much but the free bar all night wasn't going to be passed up! I cant think of a better way to end the season than downing jagerbombs with the Warwickshire Lads, taking full advantage of the free bar! Thank you Warwickshire for filling the hefty bar tab, worth every penny of my membership...and thanks for the memories of the season.
Cricket season 2017, you were a good one.
Until 2018...
