Nightwol's Blog: A Soggy Day in London Town

My alarm went off at its normal working day time of 6am but this was a Sunday! Necessary, though if we were to get out on time. Our destination was a day at Lord's Cricket Ground in London to see the third day of the second test match between England and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Ticket 2011

We'd prepared our lunch and tea the evening before so it was just a question of loading up two cool bags from the fridge and we were ready to go. A cab to the station was the first leg of the journey into London. Time for a coffee at the station before our train pulled in. It was already clear that the warm sun of the last two days had deserted us and we were in for a cool and cloudy day. We had extra clothing layers in our bags to take care of that so we felt well prepared. The train journey into London passed off pleasantly enough then two short tube legs brought us within walking distance of the ground.

All the way from Cambridge we'd been spotting people clearly headed to the same place and as we walked up St. John's Wood Road we were part of a stream of fellow spectators. There was no hold-up getting into the ground, in spite of the security searches of bags and people, and we made our way round behind the stands in search of the staircase leading up to our seats. We had front-row seats in the upper deck of the Compton Stand and so had a superb, uninterrupted view of the entire pitch.

View from our seats

Play resumed with Sri Lanka on 231-1 in their first innings in reply to England's 486. Sangakkara and Dilshan were batting and England's bowlers toiled to dislodge them. Only one wicket (that of Sangakkara) fell in the morning session. Even though things weren't going England's way, we were enjoying the atmosphere and the rare chance to see test cricket in the flesh. At lunch Dilshan and Mehela Jayawardene had taken the Sri Lankan total to 344-2.

Play in progress - morning session

We dove into our cool bags for some grilled chicken and some crudités with blue-cheese dip. There was a ham sandwich each and a selection of cubed cheeses. Quite enough to keep us going for another couple of hours. On the field we were entertained by a traditional Sri Lankan dance and drumming troupe and the usual groups of young school children playing "Quick Cricket".

Sri Lankan Drummers and Dancers

Quick Cricket

Play resumed under increasingly cloudy skies and about thirty minutes into the session, Dilshan received a nasty blow on the hand and took some time to resume playing. He was clearly handicapped by his injury and was out soon after for 193 which was a great shame as he thoroughly deserved to get his double century. After another half hour's play the sprinkles of rain that had come and gone all afternoon got heavy enough for the umpires to take the players off with the score at 372-3 and the famous Lord's hover cover to be brought on to cover the wicket.

Hover cover in position

It didn't seem that there was much prospect of the weather improving significantly and the rest of the covers were gradually brought on too. An early tea was declared. After tea the floodlights were turned on and play did actually resume but a grand total of five balls were bowled, with no addition to the score, before the players were taken off again.

Play in progress - for just five balls

This time it really did look terminal and we decided to cut our losses. As it turned out it was a smart move as there was indeed no further play that day. We walked back down towards the tube station and called in at the Green Man Inn next to Edgware Road (Bakerloo Line) Tube. There, over a few beers, we watched Rafael Nadal's demolition of Roger Federer in the Men's Singles final of the French Open Tennis Championship. Once that match was over we headed back to Cambridge where we finished off the day with a pizza at home.