County Championship Division One: Hampshire vs Sussex

Hampshire take on Sussex at the Utilita Bowl starting Friday 25 September, a County Championship Division One match that runs through to Monday 27 September. It's a four-day game, so you've got a few different ways to do it: pop in for a single afternoon, spend a whole day there, or follow the match across the weekend.

Because it's a multi-day fixture, the action doesn't stop after one session. Play starts on Friday morning and continues through Saturday and Sunday, with the match concluding on Monday. If you're only free for a bit, you can catch a few hours of the morning or afternoon sessions and still get a good sense of how the game is unfolding. If you're following it from the start, you'll see the match develop from the first ball on Friday through to the final result on Monday.

The match is part of the County Championship Division One, the top tier of the English domestic game, so it's two of the county's biggest sides going head-to-head. It's a long-form game, the kind where the result can shift over several days, and the Utilita Bowl is Hampshire's home ground, so it's a local derby in every sense.

Beyond the cricket, the venue is more than just a stadium. The Utilita Bowl is the home of Hampshire Cricket and part of a larger leisure resort in the Hampshire countryside. The estate includes a 171-bedroom Hilton hotel, the 18-hole Boundary Lakes Golf Course, the Forea spa, and BEEFY'S by Sir Ian Botham, a bar and restaurant that focuses on British food. If you're planning to spend a full day or more there, those are all on the same site, so you can make a proper day of it. The match runs from Friday 25 September to Monday 27 September at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton.