AD/Press Trip. In the weekend after the nail-biting Cricket World Cup, and still full of cricket fever, we took my son and his cousin to Emirates Old Trafford for the afternoon. We had been invited along to watch Lancashire Lightning’s Vitality T20 Blast match against Durham. The boys were incredibly excited about going to their first live cricket match, and I was too.

The doors opened at 1pm, but the match started at 2.30pm. There were lots of things going on outside the ground for families, they’d closed the road off outside and you could take part in all kinds of sporting challenges. The boys were keen as mustard to get inside, so we did that.

This match was billed as one of the most family orientated fixtures of the summer, with lots of activities going on around the ground for children to enjoy. It certainly was that. We’d brought a picnic with us, so we took our seats and got stuck into our sandwiches. There are plenty of places to grab a snack or a meal around the ground, but you can save a bit of money by bringing your own if you prefer. Likewise, drinks of both the hard and soft kind are readily available. It’s all very civilised, and there wasn’t a sniff of rowdiness.

We watched the teams warm up, and before long the match began. T20 is fast-paced, exciting cricket which is ideal for cricket fans who might be a bit overwhelmed by longer versions of the game. It was three hours of action, with lots of singing and dancing. The celebrations reminded me a lot of the ice hockey games we sometimes go to, but this was much, much warmer!

Very quickly the boys and I started to pick up on the rules and we really got into the swing of things. The crowd was full of families, all absolutely loving it. Going to see live sport can be an expensive business, but we were very pleasantly surprised. Tickets for children start at just £1 and adult tickets for the stand we were in were around £13. Having taken the family out to other sporting events and not got much change out of £100, this was a bit of a revelation.

The Vitality T20 Blast is three fast-paced hours of cricket fun. It’s a brilliant family day out, with loads going on too. If you’re lucky like we were, the players sometimes come out at the end to meet the fans, sign autographs and take selfies. This was the icing on the cake for the boys, and they were thrilled to meet their new heroes.

The boys and I had a brilliant afternoon; we arrived at Old Trafford complete newbies and left really wanting to come again another day, and then another day after that!

You can find out more about Lancashire Lightning, their Vitality T20 Blast matches and buy tickets on the Lancashire Cricket Club website.

Disclosure: We were given complimentary tickets in exchange for this review. All images and opinions are our own.