Lord's Cricket Ground

Website: http://www.lords.org

Today I visited Lord's - famously known as "The Home of Cricket". There are 3 tours daily around the ground and, arriving at the imposing gates, I began to think I might be the only one on mine. A helpful security guard directed me through the deserted car park to the cricket museum where the tour was due to begin at 2pm. I bought my ticket from a chirpy middle-aged man and then began to study the museum's displays waiting for the tour to start.

Perhaps this is the right point to declare that I know very little about cricket. This state of ignorance has been only slightly improved by my tour around this world-famous cricket ground - the tour was definitely pitched at a level for cricket fans. It's my fault of course - what did I expect!?

Anyway, at 2pm, after a few minutes spent desperately trying to learn the entire history of cricket, the tour began. We were led outside by a friendly middle-aged man tour guide in a green blazer. He gathered us around and warned us repeatedly about not taking photos in the pavilion. The tough stuff over, he relaxed and asked us all where we were from. "Anyone from India?" About three quarters of the tour put up their hands. "Anyone from Australia?" Four people raised their hands. "That doesn't leave many left. Anyone from England?" The remaining three of us meekly raised our hands.

The tour seemed great if you knew a lot about cricket. For myself, I just went along for the ride, nodding in the right places. We were led into the grand pavilion building - the oldest building on the site. Up the ornate stairs with old portraits hanging on the walls we arrived in "The Long Room" (It's 90ft in length). From the way the guide spoke about it I gathered this was a pretty famous place but he didn't elaborate on why it was famous and I was too scared of being exposed as a cricket impostor to ask. We sat outside to listen to the guide but had to retreat when the wind suddenly blew the sprinkler's water all over us!

We dried off inside the "Committee Room" where many big decisions in the history of cricket were made. The guide's commentary was strongly peppered with phrases I didn't understand and cricketers names I'd never heard of. Despite this, I got the general drift of what was going on and the rest of the group certainly seemed to enjoy it. The Committee Room has the largest sash window in Europe and both rooms have excellent views of the cricket pitch.

We then climbed the stairs to visit the Home and Visitor dressing rooms. These were spacious and there was a stale aroma of sweat in the air. Both had (what seemed to be) pretty famous balconies which the people on the tour were keen to stand on. On the honours boards the achievements of great cricketers were recorded and I was proud that I could recognise a few names in the lists - Graham Gooch, Ian Botham etc.

We then came out of the pavilion and visited the "Real Tennis" court. This is an old fashioned game from the 13th century but is still played by a few people today. There's only 40 courts in the world and the rules made it sound pretty complicated.

We left the tennis court and returned to the cricket museum. One interesting piece was a stuffed sparrow which had been killed by a cricket ball bowled at Lord's. We were taken upstairs to see the Ashes urn. Not knowing anything about this apart from the name I was imagining a huge trophy and was surprised to see the actual urn on display. It's only about 3 or 4 inches high and used to be a perfume bottle. Apparently it's symbolic you see...

After the museum we wandered over to the stands where - at last! - we were allowed to take photographs. Immediately the tourists (including myself) grabbed their cameras and began snapping away. One man hopefully gave me his phone. The idea was I'd take a photo of him but with my first attempt I managed to put the camera on "stand by" mode. He reactivated it, returned it to me and then, trying to take the photo again, I pressed the "voice activation" button. He offered to fix the phone but I was insistent "No, no. I've got it now!" The fact that I then pressed the "off" button instead of the "take picture" button was the last straw. He took it off me, turned it back on and left in search of a more technically able assistant.

The weather was beautifully sunny and the pitch was bright green - it's obviously very well maintained:
The tour then moved to its final stop at the "Investec Media Centre" - a giant futuristic-looking white pod:
This was finished in 1999 to bring the ground's media-handling abilities into the 21st century. Emerging into it from the steps outside was like stepping aboard an aircraft - all white plastic and glass. The guide was a bit rushed for time and shooed us back down the stairs to finish up in the shop. Around the ground were a lot of cricketing statues such as:Summary: Great if you're into cricket, cryptic if you're not.