With the cricket season currently on hold as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic until at least the end of May, Middlesex Women have come up with an ingenious way to maintain a healthy rivalry with their London and South East rivals throughout this cricketing hiatus!
Unable to don their pads, helmets and gloves and take to the field, Middlesex Women have conjured up a brilliant initiative to take on their counterparts, inviting Surrey Women, Kent Women and Essex Women to all take part in the virtual London Championship race, which all kicks off this weekend.
After trainers have been laced, limbs have been stretched, and warm-ups have been completed, squads of players from rival counties will set off on individual runs as part of their daily exercise routines, whilst of course maintaining correct social-distancing protocol.
Each county will name a squad of players and coaches who each have thirty minutes to run, at some point over the weekend, individually running as far as they can, with all players’ mileage monitored and recorded on the Strava running app.
The collective mileage will be added up from the whole squads’ runs to create a total team distance, which will then be divided by the distance between both counties’ home grounds, with the county that collectively makes the most journeys between those two grounds being declared the winner!
Middlesex Women’s opening clash this weekend will be against Chelmsford based Essex, with the teams trying to clock up the most journeys between Lord’s Cricket Ground and the Cloud FM County Ground in Chelmsford.
Make sure you keep an eye on our players’ and the clubs’ social media channels over the weekend to keep track on Middlesex Women’s progress, and with any luck, come Monday, after plenty of sweat, commitment and pounding of pavements, Middlesex Women will be declaring an opening weekend victory over Essex.
Brainchild of this brilliant initiative is Danni Warren, Head of Women’s Cricket for Middlesex, who commented:
“During this period of lock down it is obvious to everyone the importance of physical activity, and how getting outside for a period of time each day can help people feel relative freedom and improve their mental wellbeing.
“With that in mind we wanted to find a way to challenge our players and to drive their inner competitive fire - these London Championship match ups will do just that.
“It’s been amazing to get the buy-in from all of our neighbours in order to bring this to life and here’s to some healthy competition over the coming weeks!”
2020 LONDON CHAMPIONSHIP RACE FIXTURES
18/19 April - Middlesex Women vs Essex Women (Lord’s to Chelmsford)
18/19 April – Surrey Women vs Kent Women (Kia Oval to Canterbury)
25/26 April – Middlesex Women vs Surrey Women (Lord’s to Kia Oval)
25/26 April – Kent Women vs Essex Women (Canterbury to Chelmsford)
2/3 May – Middlesex Women vs Kent Women (Lord’s to Canterbury)
2/3 May – Surrey Women vs Essex Women (Kia Oval to Chelmsford)
