Meanwhile back in the real world, it's how it's logged that counts. I flew with a friend on his 300 mile cross country. It was over a leisurely three days starting in EIDW and took in Edinburgh, Blackpool and the IOM. Note Powdermonkey it wasn't exactly in Irish airspace. He logged it as happening on the same day. He's now a Captain in Aer Lingus, perhaps I should inform them and the IAA that he's just a fake. I just happen to think his flight gained him more and better experience than my own 300 mile simple exercise which followed the letter of the law and proved nothing more than that I can file a flight plan and keep a course on a nice day.
In fact I often wonder just how many 'Parker pen' qualifying cross countries there are out there?
The rule is rather archaic and was obviously put in place to avoid the scenario of pilots qualifying for their commercial in spite of barely leaving the vicinity of their home airfield.
But bureaucrats love their rules and all their pettifogging details. Gawd save us from them all.