ONE of my favourite things about an Australian summer is cricket season. While I am not a fanatic I do enjoy watching a one day game, having the Tests on in the background while lazing around the house and a good T20 game at the Gabba. So when summer in England finally came around I made sure I ticked off #88 – Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Located in the heart of Marylebone, this ground is one of the oldest and most prestigious cricket stadiums in the world. For a cheap £15 – you can get an impressive walking tour of the grounds. The tour includes taking in the pavilion where you can see the change rooms, standing on the famous ‘balcony’ and sitting in the Members bar. The highlight of this section is seeing the Aussie player names up on the honour board — with the likes of Bradman all the way through to Clarke, honouring those who have reached a hundred at Lords.
The tour also takes you into the museum where you can see different types of cricketing memorabilia — from portraits, uniforms, match balls and documents. Although, all of that is nothing compared to standing right in front of the original Ashes urn and hearing the history of how this iconic trophy came about. Sadly for the Australian cricket team, you can also see the glass replica trophy in the display cabinet but let’s hope it is not there for long and it heads Down Under next year.
After this section, it’s off into the grandstand where you can have a good look of the pitch, learn about how to become a member and hear about the history of each stand. From there, it is onto the controversial media centre. Shaped like an oval and made out of aluminium, the media centre sticks out like a sore thumb in this historic stadium however you can’t fault the view from the top. From here you can see the famous slope of lords and a perfect view of the pavilion.
While I wasn’t quick enough to snap up an international ticket I did manage to get a T20 ticket for the Middlesex vs Sussex game on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We had a couple of hours to kill until the game started so we decided to wander ten minutes up the street to Abbey Road and its famous crossing (remember that infamous Beatles album cover?). It took about three or four attempts because of the crowd but we did manage to get a snap shot of us walking across.
We had a quick pub lunch nearby and it was back to Lords to take in an afternoon of cricket. The stadium had a pretty good atmosphere and T20 games tend to draw a pretty big crowd. There was music and cheerleaders and the game moved pretty quickly with plenty of big hits and great fielding. It was a great afternoon and all over too quickly.
It is definitely a must do for any cricket fans but even if you’re not I’d recommend a trip to this iconic cricketing ground for the history and atmosphere alone. It is a perfect London day out!
