I Met Lanky (50 for 50 #46)

After all the time spent preparing for the London to Brighton Ultra, a major benefit of a pause in long training runs is a little bit of extra time on my hands.

But how to spend it? A bit of shopping? Reading a book? Blogging?

Old Trafford definitely falls into the category of happy places. I’ve been freezing cold and horribly sunburnt. I’ve watched Lancashire win and Lancashire lose. I watched a test match in 2000 just before I moved to London. It was one of the first places I went with Mr T after we met in 2008 and were both back in the UK (Lancashire lost to Scotland – oops).

We watched an emphatic England victory on their way to Cricket World Cup Triumph in 2019 – raining sixes this time.

And it was one of the first places we visited after the end of (most} lockdown restrictions in 2021 – staying in the Hilton overlooking the cricket ground for the first match with spectators. Cricket-watching from your own private hospitality suite is good fun. We were back at the Hilton in 2022 – a quarter final win over Essex.

But for some reason, we didn’t make it to Old Trafford last year (although watched cricket in Sedbergh and Chester-Le-Street).

I was missing my happy place.

So on Sunday, with a decent weather forecast and trains running to Manchester, we took a last minute decision to head up to Old Trafford for a double header of Twenty20.

We had a picnic and met up with some friends. We sheltered from the wind, and avoided getting sunburnt (always tricky for me whilst watching cricket whatever the temperature).

I watched a Lancashire Lightning victory over Derbyshire Falcons – emphatic in the end.

I saw Alex Hartley’s floodlight, and got to watch Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone bowl and Tammy Beaumont bat in the second match.