The events of the past week or so have seen a great opportunity to celebrate a great achievement, with the Steelbacks winning a major trophy, a long time after they were last able to do so.
Being able to say the word “champion” in the same breath as the county cricket club’s name has felt very good at work, I assure you, and the way in which the win came last Saturday was all the more impressive.
The Steelbacks have been having a magnificent season and there are people much better placed to write with authority about it than I; indeed I’m sure you’ll have been reading about it in these pages already. But what else does that championship mean, not only for the club but the town and county too?
Former England Captain and county stalwart, Allan Lamb, came into the studio on Tuesday, not only to talk about the win but also about this year’s Cycle4Cynthia event, which takes place in September 22.
As well as confirming that he’ll be present at Althorp when the riders set off on the 10th such event of its kind, Allan also confirmed that the legs which took him to over 200 England appearances will be powering him to the longest offered route on the day. Fifty miles of Northamptonshire’s roads seen from above a bike’s handlebars will no doubt be all the more pleasant if the weather is kind and Allan will again be in a team of supporters of the work of the Cynthia Spencer Hospice.
Last year about 1,100 riders raised well over £50,000 in conditions that deteriorated through the day but which failed to dampen anyone’s spirits in getting the miles completed and the money raised. It’ll be the same this year, I’m sure, and rightly so.
Beyond the Friends Life t20 title there exists the real opportunity for the town to turn one sporting success into something more.
Allan made the point that having proactively begun the season with a much-altered squad, the team’s success this year has come from letting the players play without any kind of critical Sword of Damocles hanging over them.
Watch the performance of Andy Murray winning at Wimbledon this year and you’ll see the same self-belief in action. Look closely at any avenue of human endeavour in any field and self-belief will be at the root of every successful performance.
So how do we collectively engender and nurture that same sense?
I have always believed that we have a tendency to talk ourselves down; recessions and their depths have been caused by no less, I suggest.
The opposite has its own potential to stop the social rot, which is why you’ll not hear me running my home town or county down.
There’s plenty that we can – and need – to improve here, but I believe absolutely that we are moving in the right direction.
We celebrated excellence with A level results last week – there’ll be more academic celebrations today.
We have tremendous assets in our university and college where earlier this week I watched a team of chefs not only competing in the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards, but also supporting each other by sharing facilities so that each could give of their best.
There will be a winner, but nobody will have been a loser and the county’s economy will certainly gain in the longer term.
Rather than knocking endeavour, we need to support it and publicly too.
So good luck to the Cultural Quarter, Northampton BID and others.
Charity begins at home... so does self-belief.