Fixtures out

Well, that's the fixtures out for the 2020 season, an event that somehow makes the season seem that little bit closer, even if we all know that we have a lot of winter to get through first.

The much maligned (often by me) ECB have got something right and at least put more cricket at the weekend than was the case before. It doesn't take Einstein to work out that if you play more cricket when people are off work, the greater the chance of more going along to watch. I find it astonishing that it has taken until this summer for the penny to drop in that respect.

The only issue, of course, is that the four-day game is consigned to the periphery of the season, rather than playing it in high summer. The irony of Jos Buttler commenting this week on the need for better wickets for the format was lost on many people, when we are committed to early season green tracks or late summer turners. Not that it matters, when Buttler and the England-contracted players are seen in the county game as often as I run a sub-ten second hundred metres.

As a consequence we have just thirteen days of Derbyshire cricket to follow from 22 July until the end of August, with only seven of those at home. It is poor fare, and especially sad that it comes in the summer of the club's 150th anniversary.

At least the RLODC sees us play Somerset, Surrey and Glamorgan, which makes a nice change, as well as playing Nottinghamshire at Grantham. There is a four-day game against Sussex in the scenic splendours of Arundel too.

I'm not sure, right now, which fixtures I will be attending. The Durham home game that starts on 8 May is a likely starting point, mainly for my only having to take one day's leave to attend most of it. Or I could wait until the Sussex game two weeks later.

After that I am struggling at present to reconcile family needs and eking out my holidays. I may take three days to go down to Durham in August, but it looks like much of my season's viewing may perforce be at a distance in 2020.

We'll see. I need to sort family holidays first, then take it from there.

Yet for the traditional cricket fan in your life, a warm fleece and a beanie hat seem like sensible Christmas gifts this year...