Late Night Cricket

We try to live a full life and to some look super busy, but actually we squeeze lots in on our weeknights so we can be real home birds come the weekend. This week, a little bonus in our Diary was Rob booked us tickets to go to the opening match at TRENT BRIDGE CRICKET GROUNDS of the Notts Outlaws Twenty20 match. 

This is my preferred way to watch cricket, A quick evening session taking about 3 hours as opposed to a day session lasting over 6! This was also in our plan for introducing our kids to cricket as a Twenty20 match at TRENT BRIDGE is pretty exciting! I mean they even have fireworks for the players entrance onto the pitch so for kids it is a really great spectacle to get them into the sport. 

We always knew something like this would be more exciting than a football match as every 4 or 6 runs you also get some pyrotechnic celebration and at Twenty20 matches these come quite frequently. Considering this was our kids' first ever experience in some kind of stadium event I was a bit nervous: would they be entertained? Would they sit and watch? But again, cricket is quite a crowd sport. Lots of funny shouting, chatting to the players on the boundaries and actually at TRENT BRIDGE every so often they throw our gifts to the crowd. All in all I really like TRENT BRIDGE as a venue for families, I felt totally comfortable and after the kids' initial shock at seeing grown men shouting at a pitch (all jovial shouts) they really got into it. Etta especially, who was rooting for the Birmingham Bears, or Teddy Bears as she called them, who quite quickly knocked off the runs and caught up with the Outlaws. 

Knowing our kids, I did take some Lego and little toys knowing there would come a point in the evening when they would get a bit tired or just tire from the game. This was a good idea as it gave them a 20 minute break and actually re-energised them. The evening went on well past their bedtime so I always think bringing a bit of distraction to any event is a good idea.

Food is also a great distraction for kids and Rob, and I always think that food entertains our kids too so we picked up a McDonalds walking up to the cricket ground as there is one opposite and took it into the ground to eat. We weren’t alone in this kind of thought as there is also a Domino's Pizza just outside and quite a few people had the same idea. It just made it more of a treat and so easy. 

As far as experience goes, I came away wanting to do it again next week. It was easy, the kids slept in the car for the hour journey and even though we were all definitely tired the next day, it was worth it. 

I just think things like this need to be done. Tiredness can be combated the following day but fun together as a family should always be Paramount. I often talk about the nuclear family and how that is my centre, so for me, this was a big step for us, another thing that we get to do altogether. 

Find out about local grounds which may offer family discounts of initiative sign ups as we got tickets for all of us for £25 instead of the usual £40 as an incentive, Rob found online. That price made it a good idea to head out to Nottingham and was worth the trip, but they also have good value season tickets if you catch the cricket bug!