More of a diary form today folks. I am not spending a ton of time proof reading it so if this is not your thing you can skip today’s post.
OK, if you are still here then here goes…. I am on PTO for a few days and miraculously coincided with some great weather in the UK. I am currently writing this post over breakfast at the Doubletree Southampton after a wonderful day yesterday watching cricket. If you have never spent a day watching cricket you might think it is boring, if you have spent a day watching cricket you might say it is boring. However, the new cricket franchise ‘The Hundred’ is a fun action packed day out for the whole family.
The Hundred is a brand new 100-ball format designed to simplify cricket for mass appeal among those who wouldn’t ordinarily tune in for traditional forms of the game such as test match, One day or even T20.
Have you ever watched a Test match? They last up to five days with no limit on the amount of balls bowled over those days. ‘The Hundred’ tries to strip away the complexities of multi-day cricket and instead provides a much shorter, sharper, faster, action-packed format with just 100 balls to be delivered. 150 minutes, thats all! Oh and they have two teams women’s and men’s and they play the same day so you can watch two matches one after another. So I suppose it is still long but great entertainment.
One of the franchise teams, ‘The Southern Brave’ uses Hampshire’s cricket ground as the home so naturally Xander and I took that team as ‘Our team’. The women’s team has won almost all their games and got into the final yesterday, the men’s team got off to a rocky start but have won 4 in a row and are top of the league with one more game to go, which we also have tickets to see.
I enjoyed watching women’s games as well as the men’s and I have taken Cricket to my heart this summer.
The Hundred format competition lasts just 45 days approximately and will be back next Summer. If you can go pick a team and enjoy a thoroughly good day out.
OK for those that made it through the update, I could not resist taking some lessons from the day of cricket. Here is what I gleaned from watching the matches yesterday:
- Patience; Time is limited but you need to pick your moments and know when to swing for the fences and when to take a single and keep moving.
- Persistence; Just because the last 3 deliveries were hit to the boundaries, it you have a plan and believe in it, stick with it. You will get you reward.
- Team first; You can be the star batter or the wildcard bowler. If you don’t have complete trust and belief in each other you will lose to those that do.
- Resilience; Losing two games in a row and to a limited format can be pressure and stress you would prefer to have. Things not going your way are part of life, but those that have GRIT, that stick it out win in the end.
- Rest and recovery; The PTO days are my rest and recovery ❤️🩹 my time with family to remember why we get up every day and keep going. Really being in the moment, with family and truly resting is important.
Sea's The Day 