cricket season is on again

This year we have all 3 children in the local cricket club. Doodlebug played last year and his year group are advancing from 1 day match to 2 day matches, batting one week, fielding the next. Each match is still "only" a couple of hours long. But, on a beautiful spring or summer day, there are worse places to be than on a picnic rug with some refreshments and chatting with other parents.

Turtle is in a team of some beginners and some who have played before. It's a mixed team with 2 girls playing which is fun. Girls seem to be in minority in the game of cricket. Their matches are shorter, limited number of overs, and both teams get to try their hand in batting and fielding.
Here's Turtle warming up before going out to bat in the 3rd pair.

After his team finished batting, Turtle disappeared. His team-mates were all out fielding, but Turtle was nowhere to be found. I did what I usually do when any of my children are missing, I look up... tree-climbing or other climbing is popular. Sure enough, Turtle was exploring the local vegetation. He informed me that he only likes batting, that fielding is boring. (I tend to agree with him there.... there is a lot of standing around waiting for a ball to come your way). But after some negotiating and reasoning - team sport, help your team mates, get to do some bowling as well etc etc - he wandered onto the field again.

LP starts Kanga Cricket in a couple of weeks. This is where the little ones learn the basic skills and rules of the game. As luck would have it, they will be playing on an oval a couple of minutes' walk from our house which is handy. The Little Possum is quite excited about it all.