This past Tuesday, our class visited Lord’s Cricket Ground, the most famous cricket stadium in the world. If cricket were a religion, Lord’s is the destination upon which a pilgrimage would end. The stadium is in St. John’s Wood, one of the wealthiest areas of London. It is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and hosts Middlesex County Cricket Club and the English national cricket team, in addition to the England and Wales Cricket Board. The current stand (with obvious renovation since) was built in 1814 by Thomas Lord, hence the grounds’ name.
Someone in class mentioned that the stadium felt more like a country club than a cricket stadium, and I would agree that their pavilion is very similar to a clubhouse. The rooms in the pavilion gave a very fancy aura off of them; even the changing rooms felt this way. There are distinguished paintings plastered around all of the walls, an ode to the history of the sport and to Lord’s specifically. This is especially prevalent in the long room, which is where players walk through to get to the field. Additionally, the changing rooms display the records of past athletes in regard to 100+ points scored by a batsman in an inning and 5+ wickets taken by a bowler in an inning. The location of these prestigious honors’ placement depends on if you were the away team (not England) or the home team (England). If you are an English player that performs well enough to reach one of these marks, your score would be recorded in the English team changing room with the exact statistic and the nation in which you faced. If you are an international player, the score would be recorded in the away team changing room and it would say which country you are from. To be put onto either of these boards is an extremely large honor in cricket that each athlete strives for.
The field itself was noticeably very well kept and the grounds crew were working hard to maintain the grass while we were there. The field has a checkerboard pattern which is a mark of the head groundsman, made by mowing the grass in different directions. The stadium only seats 30,000 making it a relatively small stadium. This can make it difficult to obtain seats at international matches; Middlesex cricket does not face the same problem. Marylebone Cricket Club members get first preference for international matches and are even able to bring up to two guests, but the location of their seats vary. Seats directly by the pavilion are available for members only, causing a queue to form on match days.
The venue is also very interesting because of the difference in style; on one end, the old, yet well-preserved and distinguished looking pavilion, is opposite the high-standing media booth, which, as Tony described it, looks like a spaceship. The stands between the two are relatively standard, but the leg room each seat has is a plus in comparison to other venues I’ve been to. Each seat appears to give a great view of the field, as the pitch, or central strip, is in the general center of the field.
I really enjoyed this tour for various reasons. Tony did an outstanding job giving us an overview of cricket and, combined with the knowledge from class I had come in with, I have a much better understanding of the game. A few other aspects I found unique are as follows: I thought it was pretty cool that Emma was able to sit in the seat the Queen has sat in to watch games. I also enjoyed watching real tennis, a sport I had never witnessed before. It seemed to be a mix between racquetball and squash, the first of which I like to play myself. I also liked seeing the Ashes trophy, which despite Gen’s warnings, was even smaller than I had thought it would be. Lastly, I found the media booth to be very visually appealing and the view we had from that high up above the ground was fascinating.
Although I am a baseball fan and still find baseball to be more interesting, the tour made me more interested in cricket as a whole. I would even like to attend a game, although a one day international sounds much more appealing to me than a test match.
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