Sixty days...

Hard as it was this week to contemplate, when walking around the village with my trusty sidekick Wallace  in the hail, wind, rain and snow, we are getting through the winter now.

The Spring bulbs are poking ever more confidently through the soil, the evenings are getting noticeably lighter and a realisation dawned on me this morning - not just that it is Valentine's Day...

Derbyshire's season starts in two months time. Or sixty days, if you will.

This will be my fifty-second summer supporting the county. The enjoyment that I get from that is undiminished, even though this season sees the opportunity to watch my team in high summer limited to fifty-over cricket, with many big names missing.

Further examination of the fixtures has confirmed that my trips to see us in person will be pretty limited. When games run Thursday to Sunday, as in previous summers, getting down for matches is easy enough and has no impact on my annual leave entitlement. I work compressed hours in the first three days of the week to get the rest off, but a lot of my potential strips are stymied by the timings this year.

Even my annual trip to Durham is unlikely. The four-day game would need three days of annual leave, while the T20 game there, which I would have attended, is on our son's birthday. Call me old-fashioned, but my family holidays get most of my leave, so I must content myself with watching by stream for the most part.

Maybe I need to take premature retirement...

I am sure we are in for a summer of entertainment, however. Last summer was one of the best for a long while. Dave Houghton recruited well, on and off the pitch and the players played a sustained level of excellent cricket for most of the summer.

With good signings this winter, I think that we are in for a good summer this year.

Regardless of whether I am there or not.