Cricket
It was always one of the ideals of the then modern game: scoring a 1000 runs before the end of May. I recollect hoping that Glenn Turner would do it every year for Worcs , and then Graham Hick. I waited, and waited, and then it happened.
Latterly my May target became the arrival dates of swifts. Recently, it almost became a target just to see one at all in May. This year, with the sloppy arrivals of the few house martins and swallows, I was beginning to dread a fully quiet sky.
Yet, then one day- today- it had to happen. 4 screamers at 4m above my head, mouths open, in barelling synchrony like the red arrows: fleeting, but there. Then gone. Like Hick and Turner, they were majestic, but soon gone. Hopefully, the swifts will change their game from cricket in May to some more realistic aim. Until mid August perhaps? That would do.