The first day of play at Hove in 2010: Sussex win the toss and choose to bat. The moment before the first ball of the day is released is held in the eyes of the crowd, and the significance of that first indentation into a season lingered upon. First ball, Joyce is out. We groan. Nash hits a couple of driving 4s and is then promptly caught ... off a no ball. We breathe deeply. When lunch arrives, Sussex are 48 for 1. A few hours later we are 181 for 5. And then before we know it, we are 280 all out. Only Nash has played an innings of any significance with the other players behaving more like skittles than batsmen. No matter, we say defiantly - it's probably the wicket; we'll do the same to them...
But I will never know whether we did bowl them out for less than 200 and go on to win the match, because at that moment I woke up. Yes, there may be 3 months to go until the season starts in the real world, but my sleep season started at the weekend. Just as real as the real thing, with its moments of disasterous batting and resolute optimism, and probably a lot warmer than the real thing (it was all blue skies and sun), my sleep season kicked off. Unpredictable (you never quite know when it's going to happen) but very cheap, this is the best winter membership you can get. The only annoying thing is that you never really get to find out any endings - I suppose it is a bit hard to stuff 4 day's play into one night's sleep - but you do get to watch lots of openings. So, as and when more dream play gets under way, I'll post the scores here ...
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