Cricket!

If you know me, you know one of my personalities is all about cricket. Yep, it’s true that LeggieLefty loves cricket.

So, when we set out to plan the 2018 visit to England AND I discovered that Test Cricket was coming to the “Mecca of Cricket”, aka Lord’s Cricket Ground, it was decided (by me) that the trip would be anchored against the first day’s play featuring India vs England.

At Lord’s!

So exciting!

There’s also a Crossing nearby, which we shall get to in a bit.

Coincidentally, the first day’s play was one day after a famous photo featuring the Crossing was taken.

So exciting!

But hark, the readers whine about digressions and delays!

<Ed: not a digression! Delay is debatable!>

Day 6

This is Day 6 of this first trip to England, my England, in 2018. I haven’t been very good at writing about this trip. I did write 3 different pieces about the Pre-Prep as follows:

1. Explaining the Romance with England
2. The Initial Planning
3. The Final Plan and Problems

And there’s:

1. Day 1 – Arrival, Kensington and Hyde Park
2. Day 3 – when I created a bomb scare in Greenwich

Now, of course this is Day 6.

Hey, nobody said anything about writing or delivering stuff in sequence!

So! Day 6 was all about Cricket. At Lord’s Cricket Ground. Hallowed territory for cricket fans (especially the slightly older ones…)

Tickets

I was lucky. I saw availability of two seats at the Nursery End. For a moment I hesitated, for there was some availability at the Pavilion End as well. Then I becalmed my beating heart and used some rational thinking, based off my experience of cricket grounds in India and the fact that the Nursery end has the practice facilities called, oddly enough, the Nursery Ground.

This, I felt, would allow me to get a closer look at the stars warming up before their turn to get into the main arena.

I clicked, paid, and a week later arrived the tickets below, with an instruction booklet.

So exciting!

I kept them safely aside, making sure they were safe with the passports and the wallet. For they were as exciting and valuable!

A week in London, UK

And so the long week wore on. In London. There were aircraft to be seen, recognized from my reading of the tales of Biggles, Algy, Bertie and Ginger. There was the concept of modern time, and a date line to be straddled. Markets to be sampled. Canals to be boated on. Gardens to be seen, including one from my reading of a very funny book written by a man with two first names.

Finally, it was time to wake up early in my hotel room in Kensington, have a quick breakfast from the included buffet and then take the tube to St John’s Wood from Earls Court. There were crowds all heading out. Some were in MCC, England and other club ties, blazers on, umbrellas unfurled.

For it was raining.

So not exciting!

But, it was England where rain is eminently imminent in all directions, and at all times.

Oh well, we walked along, following the well-dressed and well-mannerd crowd until we saw this wall.

The wall of Lord’s!

So exciting!

I didn’t faint, from sheer delight, but walked along into the grounds.

I was here!

At Lord’s Cricket Ground!

So exciting!

The Rain

It was raining. The pitch was covered by tarpaulin. Across the ground I could see the Pavilion and players from both teams sitting drinking tea and chatting among themselves. They were relaxed, not at all hurried.

For it was raining and if there’s one thing I know it’s the fact that cricket is not played when it’s raining. <Digression Alert: Stevie Nicks is wrong – thunder usually happens when it’s NOT raining!>

The sky was overcast, dark and low clouds hovered over head, leaking without pause on the sacred ground below. ’twas not a monsoon rain, but a decently heavy drizzle, a respectable dampening of the air, the grounds and the people beneath. Clearly, too much for the Summer Game to be played. And so the players chatted across the ground, drank whatever from their cups and sat there not watching impatient me, sitting impatiently in the covered Edrich Stand, in the shadow of the spacecraft inspired media centre.

Morning Session of Play

Test cricket, the pinnacle of the sport, (don’t let the T20 types dissuade you from this point) is played over five  (5) days. Each day is split into 3 (three) sections of two (2) hours each. These are called:

• Morning Session
• Post Lunch Session
• Post Tea Session

Here I was in time to see The Tossing of the Coin to decide who bats first, or bowls first.

I was there in time and the teams were desultorily in their respective dressing rooms and balconies, sipping their sippy cups, chatting amongst themselves. The toss didn’t happen.

Because it was still raining.

I walked around the stands, taking pictures. I walked out to the Nursery Ground, hoping there was something to see.

There was KL Rahul, fully padded up, heading towards the indoor nets with Sanjay Bangar, the batting coach, presumably to get some practice. There was Ollie Pope, shortly thereafter, also heading out for his tuition. And the son of The Great Indian Run Machine, aka Sachin Tendulkar. Arjun Tendulkar, here with the Under-19 team, looked lost, damp and very confused.

It continued to rain. I enjoyed a band, trying to pump up the crowd.

Post Lunch Session

With the Morning Session lost due to rain, we got ourselved some lunch. Now, there were picnic hampers available for sale, including sandwiches and bottle of wine. The smaller one was 80GBP and the bigger one was 120GBP. Cheapskate that I am, with dietary restrictions in place, I forewent (is that correct?) the hampers. We had brought some sandwiches and then we went for a walk.

It turned out that my experience with Indian cricket grounds was not in sync with Lord’s. In India, your seat is assigned to a block and you can’t leave the confines of that block. You’re marooned with the other 5,000 (five thousand) morons and able to use only such facilities as are available in your cell block.

At Lord’s, I was able to walk completely freely around the perimeter of the grounds. And so, I stumbled upon the museum.

 

And a caricature of the hitman – Harold Larwood.

A treasure trove of artifacts from cricket history lay before me. Here some boots, there some kit, there a scorebook, and finally, in a glass container lay the revered(!) trophy!

The Ashes! The ancient rivalry between England and Australia is played for The Ashes!

So exciting!

The actual tropy is small, tiny, wee and can be easily held in the palm of your hand. It was created by a review in The Sporting Times, after England had lost the series to Australia. The piece stated that English cricket had died and “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”. The next England captain heading to Australia promised to “regain those ashes”. After winning two of the three games, Ivo Bligh, the England captain was presented with a small urn with, supposedly, the ashes of a wooden bail.

There is some doubt whether the trophy we see today is the actual urn given to Bligh. And the thing held aloft by winning teams is a replica.

BUT! NEVERTHELESS!

So exciting to see this great trophy!

(It’s really tiny……..)

Post Lunch Session

So exciting to see the Museum. The excitement abated a bit as we sat down to view the remains of the day.

There wasn’t much. The rain fell steadily after a short period, when the sky grew brighter, the clouds took a break from pissing on us. The perimeter advertisement boards flickered on to cheers from the crowds that were now quite into the beer and ale and stout.

But, they must have gone off to have a few drinks of their own, or a group discussion of some sort, because they came back and started drooling over us again. I went for another walk, hoping to meet someone interesting, famous or equally bored who wanted a chat.

Then I came back and roars and cheers from the crowd erupted. A couple of men, possibly addled with beer, wine and/or spirits had leapt over the fences and were running into the field towards the tarpualin covered pitch. Running behind them were the security guards and cops. The men had a healthy lead in the race. They reached the tarpaulin and threw themselves on it, sliding on their tummies. Cheers from the crowd applauded them.

About 45.38462 seconds later they were frog-marched off, massive grins on their faces. The crowd booed the security guards.

Shortly thereafter, the PA came on to tell us that play had been called off for the day.

Thus, ended my dream.

Dashed to the ground. Smashed to smithereens. Crushed under the unrelenting rain.

The first days play for IND vs ENG was done, dusted, dead, stillborn and LeggieLefty was spotted in the corner, leaning against a pillar, wiping the rain from his eyes, while sniffing copiously.

The Crossing

We left, LeggieLefty, the Missus and myself, both of us dissapointed and aggrieved.

As we walked out in our rain jackets, I said, “Well, that sucked!”

We walked along the street and took a turn, and suddenly there it was.

The Crossing!

So exciting!

There was a bunch of people on either side waiting for traffic to subside so they could do what we wanted to do, viz walk across The Crossing. I have to say motorists were patient, resigned, seemingly, to people walking across while having their photo taken. Very nice of them!

In 1969, the Fab Four, aka John, Paul, George and Ringo, known worldwide as The Beatles, had their photo taken walking across this very Crossing. That photo was taken on the 8th of August, 1969, 49 years and day before I set out across it. It went on to become the cover for their 1969 album, Abbey Road.

Interestingly, Abbey Road Studios lies at one end of the crossing. I didn’t even see it. I had to go back in 2022 to see it. A small lit-up sign with a white frosted glass said “Abbey Road Studios”. If you ain’t lookin’ for probably the most famous music studio in the world, you’re gonna miss it!

Days end

We went home, packed, and left London the next day on a train to Oxford, for the second leg of our trip. More on that in about 5.2746 years or less, whichever is earlier.

Meanwhile, go ahead and leave a comment!