Coronavirus: Middlesex Women launch virtual London Championship
Middlesex Women celebrate a wicket during the MCC Women's Day match at Lord's Cricket Ground - Credit: PA
With the cricket season on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic until at least the end of May, Middlesex Women have come up with a way to maintain a healthy rivalry with their rivals.
Unable to don their pads, helmets and gloves and take to the field, Middlesex have conjured up a brilliant initiative, inviting Surrey Women, Kent Women and Essex Women to all take part in the virtual London Championship race, which 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 30 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!
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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 CloudFM County Ground.
And head of women’s cricket Danni Warren said: “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.
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“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
April 18/19: Middlesex Women vs Essex Women (Lord’s to Chelmsford)
April 18/19: Surrey Women vs Kent Women (Kia Oval to Canterbury)
April 25/26: Middlesex Women vs Surrey Women (Lord’s to Kia Oval)
April 25/26: Kent Women vs Essex Women (Canterbury to Chelmsford)
May 2/3: Middlesex Women vs Kent Women (Lord’s to Canterbury)
May 2/3: Surrey Women vs Essex Women (Kia Oval to Chelmsford)
