Chugging past 2.5 million views

 Earlier this week, in the midst of the usual articles on Derbyshire County Cricket Club. this blog went past 2.5 million views. 

I still find the success hard to believe and when I started it, fourteen years ago, I had no expectation of any kind of success, other than perhaps putting me into contact with a few people who might have a more sensible approach to cricket than those who often posted on cricket on the late, but not lamented BBC 606 site.

If you had suggested a visit total of this size and DAILY views in the summer of anything between two and five thousand, I wouldn't have believed you. That it has opened doors for me to get to know my heroes, become good friends with some of them, write a couple of books, speak at cricket societies across the country and do a good few radio interviews I will be forever grateful.

It has put me in touch with many lovely people and I have missed my visits to Derby in the past two years, pulling up a seat with a friend or two and passing a thoroughly pleasant few hours.  Your comments and messages continue to mean a lot and I am grateful for all of them, even when I don't agree!

I have found this summer the most difficult in a few years and my posts will doubtless make that clear. No need to cover that ground again just now, but the blog's continued existence will depend on three things.

Firstly time. The challenges of ageing parents will be known to many of you and sorting things for them from three hundred miles is not without its challenges. Thankfully I am able to get down there again now, but finding the time for a day at the cricket amongst the tasks is akin to squeezing a quart into a pint pot at times. I am resigned to the fact that I won't see Derbyshire in the flesh again until 2022, fingers crossed and my gratitude for the excellent streams - glitches and all  - knows no bounds. Certainly the one at Derby has been excellent, even if it wasn't clear why a camera kept going onto the same group of half a dozen lively lads last night after every over..

I've also queried the club's direction and it hasn't been an easy summer to write and remain positive. As one of life's 'glass half full' people, being harsh and critical hasn't been easy, but it has been and I suspect will continue to be necessary. If support concern cannot be rationally explained and presented somewhere, then the club's future will be a challenging one. 

I will tell it like it is. When we play well, I am quick to praise, when we play badly I will be honest and attempt to be constructive in criticism. I don't do the latter to be a curmudgeon, more in the hope that those in positions to do something about it will take note. I am flattered that many people tell me things and they are all assured that I never, ever break confidences. I am certainly not representing the club, merely my love for it over decades of support.

But finally, to continue, I do need to find a sponsor or sponsors for another year. Writing is not lucrative unless you write a blockbuster and I don't expect the blog to be turned into a film any time soon, with yours truly played by Channing Tatum. But to keep the content going - and more critically justify the time it takes -  it is much easier when a few businesses have deemed the product and its content worthy of their support.

So if you own or work for a company that could benefit from their logo and a link to their website on a blog seen by thousands each day, do please get in touch. The support of Office Care over many years was hugely appreciated and mutually beneficial and I would love to work again with them or with anyone else. That support can be a line advertisement/link for a modest annual fee, or overall blog sponsorship with your logos prominent. I would prefer not to go down the Google Ads route, which I feel is intrusive at best, annoying at worst.

My sincere thanks go to Mark Allen (Clay Cross Mark) for his financial support this year.

And to all of you for your regular visits. If you can help from a sponsorship perspective as the world returns to post-Covid normal, please DM me on Twitter @Peakfanblog, or email me at peakfan36@yahoo.co.uk

With that support, we might be celebrating three million views sometime next year..