The Ashes at Lords - Days 1 and 5

Something that we couldn't miss while we are over here is the chance to watch an Ashes test at Lords. The tickets are balloted, and we worked out that if we won all the tickets we'd put in for we would have been 700 quid out of pocket. Such was the demand, though, that we only got tickets to the last day. After the Australian efforts at Cardiff, we didn't think that we had much of a shot at seeing any play (barring bad weather) but we had our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, Anthony (a friend from Aus) had retained his membership at the other MCC (in Melbourne). Through this, he was able to get reciprocal rights to Lords, and had a ticket to the first day going spare. I jumped at the chance, and was there in time to watch the first ball - very special.


Unfortunately, the bowling from Australia wasn't special, and it was a morning of watching the English pile on the runs. What we discovered at lunchtime, though, was why Lords is considered such a great ground to watch cricket.

Along with the history, and the fact that it is a very small and intimate ground so nobody is ever far from the action, it has an area within the main gates called the 'nursery ground'. This broad lawn area was lined with tents serving food and drink, as well as a big-screen and a band playing through lunch. We were having so much fun that we were late back in for the start of the second session.

The first day was very much England's, particularly the bit that I saw since I had to go back to work at tea (showing real dedication there...fortunately Daniel, another Aussie friend, was able to use my seat for the last session so it was a win-win)

As the test progressed, our hopes of seeing play on the last day looked dimmer still, but for a different reason as England got the upper hand. Still, things looked poised coming into the last day for a history-making run chase and we were pretty excited heading to the ground.


Unfortunately, we only got a session of play, as Freddie Flintoff ran through the Australian batting. Fortunately, the extended Lords grounds came to our rescue, as we whiled away the afternoon with some beers on the lawn with Anthony and his dad (plus AB and Chappelli who were nearby but not particularly conversational)...