Nottinghamshire v Hampshire at Trent Bridge

There's no doubt that Twenty20 has improved the popularity of cricket in this country - it's quick, it's exciting and it's played in the evening when people can actually go and watch it after work and school. At the other end of the spectrum is the four-day county game, usually played in front of just a few hundred hardy cricket fans. Nottinghamshire are trying to change that and so they offered entry to the Sunday of their game against Hampshire for just £1.

Gone are the colourful clothes, replaced by traditional cricket whites (although Hampshire's are very white when compared to the classic off-white flannels preferred by the home team. It's almost as if all of their mums have won a lifetime supply of Daz). Gone is the white ball, replaced by one made of red leather. Gone are flamethrowers that greet every boundary, replaced by a smattering of polite applause. But also gone are the drunken lads who think that it's hilarious to spend their time making a beer snake out of empty plastic pint cups. Instead they are replaced by gentlemen of a certain age reading the Sunday Telegraph and eating a scotch egg.

It's strange to compare the four day game to Twenty20, even though the rules are (largely) the same, it's a completely different game. The ebbs and flows take longer to work themselves out and when they arrive, they aren't as pronounced. Batsmen have more time and so they don't need to attack every ball. This means that they give less chances and so bowlers need to be patient and slowly build pressure. Watching a player like Michael Lumb, who scored fifty runs in just seventeen balls in a Twenty20 game against Leicestershire a few weeks ago, makes you wonder how he manages to reign in his natural attacking instincts to instead slowly construct an innings.

 

Although the lack of Twenty20-esque instant gratification does have some benefits - it means that you can happily pop to the bar or to the toilet without the fear of missing anything really exciting. Which does mean that it's a lovely way to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon. For those not quite as happy to sit in the sun, Notts had put on plenty of activities for the kids - a drumming workshop, a cricket-based obstacle course and a cricket skills challenge. Plus everyone was allowed onto the pitch during the lunch and tea breaks. Try that at Forest and you still get a clip round the ear from the ghost of Cloughie.

As for the cricket itself, it was the same old story this season for Notts as they again let themselves down with the bat. Only captain Chris Read, who shared fifty partnerships with Lumb and Tahir before running out of partners on seventy, showed any real fight (how many times have local cricket commentators written a similar sentence - Notts will really miss Ready when he's gone). Then Hampshire able demonstrated how good a wicket it was to bat on as they ended day two of the contest 180 runs ahead of Notts for the loss of just a single wicket.

 

All in all the cricket was a bit of a distraction from the pleasure of sitting out in the sun, drinking beer and chatting with friends. It's usually £16 to see a day's play in the county championship at Notts - the same price as a Twenty20 ticket. You do get to see an awful lot more cricket - an additional fifty overs. In that we saw 312 runs scored and ten wickets taken. However, during the Twenty20 quarter-final against Essex last week there were 285 runs scored and seventeen wickets.

I'm not sure that I'd be willing to pay the full price go to watch a day's play but for a quid it was an absolute bargain. I hope that Notts have seen a big enough upsurge in ticket sales to do something like this a bit more regularly next season. For a pound, I think that people would be more willing to pop in just for a couple of hours. Having said that, even at full price, there aren’t many places where you get a full days entertainment - over seven hours - for £16. All we need if they do it again next season is a better performance from the home side.

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club website