#EighteenCounties — watching a cricket match at all eighteen county cricket grounds
Eat Sleep Cricket Repeat
We’re a cricket-mad family. Prateek’s first time attending Test cricket was at Old Trafford, when Sachin Tendulkar scored his first century; Krishna and her sister grew up obsessed with the game, from playing and watching to creating sketchbooks and decorating their bedroom with cricket imagery. No surprise that our son Aarav’s first game was at the age of two, England vs Pakistan in Dubai, considering Krishna and Prateek were introduced by a mutual friend ‘because we’d enjoy talking about cricket,’ and got to know each by spending the summer of ’99 watching Lancashire’s County Championship games at Old Trafford. Prateek and his brother spent their (then) life savings to experience the 2011 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, carrying unforgettable memories from Chennai, Ahmedabad and Colombo. And we spend every available moment watching, practising, playing, and analysing cricket. We don’t like cricket, we love it!
Visiting eighteen county cricket grounds
So as spectators return to sports stadiums across the country, we decided to take on a little project: we are going to watch at least one match at each of the eighteen county cricket grounds in England and Wales. We’ve given ourselves the remainder of this season, and the whole of the 2022 season. Our aim is to watch all forms of the game in doing so — from T20, the new Hundred format, forty-over games, and four-day County matches, to ODIs, Tests, and of course women’s matches. Given circumstances, we’ll stay closer to home, attending matches in London and the South East, for the next few weeks. We’re not the first to do this of course, but it’s our humble way to pay tribute to the players, staff, and fans that make ours the most intriguing, frustrating, dramatic sport of all!
After each match we’ll post some photos and a brief write-up here — a few remarks reviewing each stadium, and a match report. We hope you enjoy our journey with us!
Match One: Lord’s Cricket Ground, 24th June 2021
Fixture: Middlesex vs Essex Eagles, Vitality Blast T20
Stadium review
This wasn’t the first time we had been to Lord’s — in fact, we had been to watch this very fixture three years ago. Prateek suggested we re-start our journey (or perhaps pilgrimage) around the eighteen grounds at The Home of Cricket. So we knew what to expect from the stadium — the futuristic media centre, opposite the most famous cricket pavilion in the world.
Aarav noted the outfield was a really bright green, and looked very smooth. Despite the COVID19 restrictions, it felt like there were more people than we expected — maybe that was because, as the cricket got more exciting, the noise levels really grew! There was a really good atmosphere, helped by the handful of Essex Eagles fans singing and encouraging their team along.
Aarav felt like he knew the stadium for another reason — being the Home of Cricket, the pavilion and media centre are familiar to us from matches on TV.
Prateek noticed the new facilities that had been built since our last visit, and what felt like new seats in the Mound Stand — despite being the oldest stadium, it feels modern enough to host a T20 match with fire cannons, music, and floodlights.
It was great to be at Lord’s again, especially because of how close the match was! Here’s our brief match report.
Match report
The scorecard doesn’t even begin to describe the drama! Stevie Eskinazi and Joe Cracknell were off to a flier, making an 80-run partnership in less than nine overs. At the halfway stage, Prateek thought that if Eskinazi went on to make a century, as he looked set to do, Middlesex would be on course for 200 in twenty overs.
As it happened, Essex took a couple of wickets and tightened their fielding, restricting Middlesex to 183 — but Eskinazi managed to complete a brilliant maiden century, to massive applause. Could Essex chase it down?
With a six off the first over, they certainly started well! Adam Wheater started even faster than the Middlesex openers, but an early run-out brought Test star Dan Lawrence to the crease. He and Michael Pepper consolidated, and hit regular boundaries, leaving Essex needing 70 off 44 balls when Pepper was out to a really high catch — not easy, but gettable, with New Zealand World Cup finalist Jimmy Neesham joining Lawrence and managing to keep the score ticking. Then, it all kicked off!
162/3 22 need off 13 balls, and Neesham swipes a six right into the stand near us! 16 needed off two overs, Essex favourites, and the crowd getting very excited — at which point Middlesex took three quick wickets, including two in two balls from Mitchell, so five were needed from two balls, and four off the last one. Almost incredibly, Simon Harmer edged that last ball over short third man, and Essex had won! One of the closest, most exciting matches we had seen!
We can’t wait for our next match as we continue round Eighteen Counties.