This was a T20¹ match between England & West Indies, which makes it my first international cricket match. ( But probably not my first international sporting thing, because I’m pretty sure there was an NZ vs. Australia kickboxing thing I went to at one point )
Tickets happened because another person bought them but couldn’t use them, so I owe them a beer or three, I think. I did try to make sure that the ticket only went to me as a last resort, on the grounds that practically anyone else in the friends group would care more about the event than I do, but I was the only one available.
Unlike the match at Lord’s, this one involved a drive to a railway station near the grounds, then a shuttle bus to the stadium. I’m sure it’d be possible to do it by train from Aylesbury, but I’m pretty sure it’d take a long time. Left A+K’s place around 1500, got to the stadium around 1745, got back to A+K’s at maybe 0030, so probably spent more time in travel than at the game?
Also many more people than that match at Lord’s, though it still wasn’t super crowded most of the time. Except for the interval, when the lines for the toilets immediately formed out the doors & down the concourse.
They’re good seats; Four rows back, a bit off to the side, and near the dugouts. There were folks a bit to the side & forward who were, by the end of the match, getting pretty annoyed with the crowd of kids wanting to get souvenirs signed, because it kept expanding to be right in front of their seats.
Just off to the other side of the dugouts were some flamethrower things they’d set off when something impressive happened, like a 4 or a 6. Or maybe just when they got bored?
It was a fun afternoon/evening.
To my understanding, the highest ever English T20 score in England, and the second highest ever.
A few crowd catches, one where the person overbalanced forward & fell badly, to the level where some (probably) medical folks headed over & play stopped for a while until he got up again. I was concerned that he’d hit his head on the concrete steps, but I think he just fell hard on one side & knocked the wind out of himself, and took a while to recover while being wedged in an awkward spot between rows?
Found some news footage; He got stuck between the seats across a couple of rows, and it took a while to extricate him. That said, he’ll be sore for a bit, I suspect.
There was also an opportunity for me to get hit by the ball. ( This had been predicted based on the seats, but also on the entirely accurate assessment that I was likely to not be paying attention the entire time & so not see it coming ) We were just getting a post-interval dinner from one of the food places when the ball came up over the crowd, bounced maybe twice, and hit the Doritos stand next door. A little more bounce and it could have landed in the Nachos.
¹ T20 is effectively a short game of cricket. Each team gets 20 overs of 6 balls, with some time limits on how long they can take for each over. I’m assuming that the idea is that the limited opportunities to score runs means that there’s less reason not to go for big hits & aggressive play.
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