This was the first ever women’s test match at Lord’s. Until very recently, women’s test matches tended to be staged at small grounds as they did not expect to attract crowds.
My previous visit to a women’s test match, with Janie, in 2003, was to all intents and purposes a crowd-free affair:
Times change, thank goodness. Women’s cricket is now a well and truly professional thing.
Day One – I thought a women’s test match might be an ideal event for a meet up with DJ. He said he’d be free from lunchtime if that was OK.
Of course it was OK.
I took the opportunity to play tennis in the morning – a jolly game of doubles with Barry Nathan and others, despite the heat. Barry enjoys women’s cricket and we agreed to watch together for the bulk of the morning session until DJ’s arrival.
I thought DJ might only want to stay for two or three hours, but he found the relaxed atmosphere in the Warner Stand and the pleasant temperature in the shade and slight breeze much to his taste, so we chatted and enjoyed the remainder of the days play all the way through to stumps.
I followed Day Two of the match from home, while also following the Wimbledon final. England pretty much unravelled that day.
Janie and I played tennis early on the Sunday ahead of setting off for Lord’s Day Three, with a view to watching 45 minutes or so before lunch through to soon after tea.
We spent what remained of the morning session watching with Jim “Dixon” Chaudry, who had, to our good fortune, taken seats in the back row of the lower terrace with his wife and kids, only for the others to go off for an early lunch just as we arrived. That row is our favoured spot for relaxed pavilion days, such as The Hundred finals day, as it makes for a perfect dance floor.
Also an ideal spot for gently watching on and chatting with Jim at a test match.
Most of what I want to say about Day Three of the women’s test was said by “Daisy” in her research piece for King Cricket: “Crowd Knobhead Analysis”.
(Just in case anything ever goes awry with the King Cricket site, the link is also scraped to here).
That piece of research clearly attracted a global audience, as it was even picked up by a Brazilian sports site and translated into Portuguese. Who knew that Brazilians are so interested in women’s cricket, especially when a men’s football world cup is on.
I find it hugely reassuring to learn the the Portuguese word for knobhead is “knobhead”, and that the Portuguese phrases for parvenues, arrivistes and Champagne Charlies are, respectively, “parvenues”, “arroyos” & “Charlies de champanhe”. I now sense that my companions and I could make ourselves understood in a Portuguese-speaking country.
Here is a link to the scorecard from that match.
The atmosphere at Lord’s during this match was delightful. I do hope that women’s test matches become more of a regular feature at Lord’s and at other prestigious grounds.