Cricket Matches in May

1. The County Championship is the cricket equivalent of football’s Premiership. It’s professional cricket. This is a division 1 match.
2. The match lasts for 4 days unless one team wins early, in which case, there may not be any play on day 4. The match lasts until early evening every day.
3. It may sell out, depending on how well each team is doing and what the weather is like. They don’t play if it rains - if it rains all day, you get your money back.

I think watching cricket is like watching paint dry, but my friend loves listening to Test Match Special on the radio.

Jennifer, thank you so much. This is very helpful.
Katheryne

Another option for sport in England would be football ( soccer ) or rugby.

https://www.london-irish.com/fixtures/21-may-2022-bath-rugby-v-london-irish/s270665366/

https://www.world.rugby/sevens-series/tickets

There are rugby matches at Twickenham on May 28-29.

Years ago I discovered a rugby team who practiced on a pitch in the Hampstead Heath. Watched their match later on the trip. Was invited by them and their families to join them at their pub after the match. Hampstead Rugby Football Club. No clue if still in existence especially after Covid Lockdown. Was a fun afternoon.

Since the match will take a couple of days as mentioned, I'm not sure this is what I would recommend if you just want to see some cricket. Try to find a T20 match instead would be my suggestion.

The T20 Blast starts at the end of May; the One Day Cup doesn’t start until August, and England don’t have a match of any kind until June. I think County Championship is OP’s only option.

Hi Katheryne -

England is peppered with cricket pitches that village and town sides use. The matches village/club cricketers play tend to be single day affairs and in my part of the world you can just turn up to watch (like Rick did in his Lake District short film). Your attendance would probably be appreciated! The standard in the Bradford leagues for instance is very high, but I’m not sure what the level of player is like in the southern end of the country. It might be a little more, erm, ‘agricultural’ but you’d get an appreciation of what is going on just the same.

A little research about the area you are staying in may throw up some locations and fixtures you could investigate without much outlay. They’d still be weather dependent! If you’re not too fussed about seeing pro cricket, a local match would be OK.

T20 matches last about three to four hours and are the ‘flash, bang, wallop!’ end of cricket, entertaining as anything usually a rowdy atmosphere (for cricket) and over fairly quickly if you don’t take to it!

Ian

If he's new to the game it would be well worth getting some youtube experience and a basic understanding of the game before attending. It is much more interesting and much more complicated than baseball or football, a real chess match.

You don't need to understand where cow corner is or deep mid wicket or silly mid off, but understanding how overs work and some of the more usual methods of taking a wicket and scoring runs will make sitting in the stands much more interesting.

Some County Championship matches are broadcast on cricket radio. These little radios can be bought at the venue for a few pounds - having live commentary may also help with the understand of the proceedings.

Can’t exactly tell what your travel itinerary is but if driving to Wales might consider a diversion to Lyme Regis.

Check this website. https://uplymelymeregis.play-cricket.com/home

Few years back stayed in an AirBnB in Lyme Regis. Whilst there the property owners mentioned a scheduled match. Intrigued I walked to where the match was being held. See link above and use Google maps to see images of the pitch.

Stood about with locals and throughly enjoyed having the chance to see the game played. Never quite understood the rules but that didn’t matter. It was the experience.

Nearly every village in England has weekend amateur cricket - you don’t need to divert anywhere to see this! It’s a different experience to a county match.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. Based on your input we will plan to find something more local and skip the LV= match in Southampton.
A little background: my husband is a sports enthusiast and has officiated almost every sport played with a ball in the US (including Division I college hoops). Even at age 68 he still officiates high school basketball 2-3 nights a week in the winter. The cricket match is more about seeing a sport played live that he’s not seen before (live). He would also enjoy the rugby, I’m sure.
Our month long itinerary has us in Tenterden (Kent), Stockbridge (Hampshire), Moreton-in-Marsh (Gloucestershire), Ruthin (Denbighshire), Skipton (North Yorkshire) and Diss (Norfolk). I’ll poke around on town websites and see what I can find. I’ve also found Facebook to be a help in scouting out local events.

given the new info, I'd think he'd really enjoy the professional game. Much better chance of seeing those top notch catches, faster bowlers, or at least bowlers with more guile, and to see professional Umpires working their turf. Boning up a bit on the signals likely to be given by the Umpires will also put him in his element....

And the Rose Bowl (the name the Ageas Bowl had before they sold the name) is an excellent ground.

For a run-of-the-mill county championship game there is little prospect of it being sold out, more likely to have very few people there actually.

Just take it or leave it on the day from the weather.

The Aegas Bowl has a hotel built into one of the stands and it is possible to have a room overlooking the ground.