Janie and I like a bit of live music. And we like going to Lord’s. And we like cricket. The Hundred might have been designed just for us. OK, perhaps not our first choice of music and our first choice of cricket format, but you cannot have everything. We always enjoy these afternoons and evenings.
On this occasion, we had business to attend to earlier in the day – kitchen and sound system planning doesn’t do itself, you know. And once we have really acquired the taste for thumping bass, rap music, we’ll need better speakers than those we currently sport in the house.
When we arrived at Lord’s, the monosodium glutamate (MSG) women’s team had already dispatched the London Spirit Women for the square root of diddly squat.
We decided to eat. Tasty pork baps and salad were the order of the day in the Long Room Bar.
Then we thought we’d better watch a bit of cricket. A very little bit of the women’s match as it turned out, but still we were able to get a vantage point on Janie’s beloved sun deck.
Then a short break before the highlight of the day – Tinie Tempah.
I tried to explain to some of the regular gentlemen around us that Janie is more of a Tinchy Stryder person than a Tinie Tempah-ista. I then asked the gentlemen who their favourite rappers might be. It took them a while to realise that I was pulling their legs…
…before amazing them with my rapper dance moves. I am quite sure the gentlemen had never seen anything quite like it – indeed one or two of them said words to that effect. Here’s an example of Tinie’s work with dancers doing some very similar moves to those I displayed:
For those who missed the concert…or perhaps even were there but couldn’t hear very much…here are a couple of Tinie’s best numbers, which he did perform on the day:
After the main event, we had just a little energy left to watch a bit of cricket. London Spirit bowled first and seemed to restrict MSG to a modest total.
James Coles showing his much-mentioned £390,000 worth with the ball
We left about half way through the London Spirit innings, with the match poised but tilting in MSG’s favour, as indeed it turned out, in a nail-biting finish which we caught when we got back to the flat.
Janie and I had never been to Wormsley before. I was especially keen to spend a chunk of the Knight-Stokes Cup Southern Semi-Finals day there, as I am a keen advocate for and supporter of state schools cricket, not least through my role as a Trustee of the (soon to be concluded) London Cricket Trust.
Janie and I also pencilled in two or three additional dates for Wormsley this season, in the hope that weather and other commitments would allow us to attend for a while, by way of a reconnaissance mission.
2 July 2026: Buckinghamshire v Middlesex
2 July presented a suitable window of opportunity for us, with the weather and appointments diaries both allowing. Buckinghamshire v Middlesex – presumably a warm-up friendly for Middlesex to prepare for the 50 over cup. It was certainly seriously warm up there in the Chiltons.
By the time we arrived, Middlesex had dispensed with Buckinghamshire and the small but loyal crowd were enjoying the interval at that beautiful ground. But soon the cricket restarted.
Gently watching on – Middlesex at Wormsley styleGed: How do you spell reconnaissance? Dingy Bags: Look it up yourself, you muppet. Beefy: How do you spell muppet?
Middlesex seemed to be making short work of Buckinghamshire’s modest total.
But nothing much seems to cheer the loyal Middlesex fans these days, not even the realisation that there is a quality gulf between first class and minor counties. I suppose we/they have always known that.
16 July 2026: John Hampden Grammar School v Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet, Chelmsford County High School For Girls v Bournemouth School for Girls
Someone (not me) was video-ing the whole of the boys match
Our time window on this day was a bit longer than it had been on 2 July, but the boys match started early, such that our pre-noon arrival at the ground still meant that we had missed out on the John Hampden Grammar School’s innings in this 20 over tournament. (128, seeing as you asked).
Unsurprisingly, given John Hampden School’s location in High Wycombe, just down the road from Wormsley, the small crowd almost entirely consisted of friends and families of that local team. Janie and I sat amongst them in the tree-shaded area. We were made to feel most welcome.
Queen Elisabeth School batted well at times, but mostly looked behind the required rate given the regular falling of wickets. At one point, one of the John Hampden boys shouted out to his playing mates, “you’ve got this one nailed”, at which point the QE batsman hit a couple of fours to make the target seem possible again. “No-one should ever say that in a cricket match”, yelled one of the grandads, partly in faux-anger but also, I suspect, a tinge of nerves for his grandson’s team.
In the end John Hampden Grammar School did prevail, by 11 runs if I remember correctly.
There was quite a long interval between the two matches, while the girls teams warmed up and we strolled around .
Janie merely pretending to need the defibrillator. It was not that hot and we were mostly in the shade.A view through the pavilionJanie: Oy – who nicked my massage couch? The fine dining was set up for that evening’s Garsington Opera crowd – not for the likes of us.
We met some non-plussed and/or grumpy-looking model cricketers…
…possibly fretting that they too were excluded from the Garsington high tables
When we returned to our shady spot, the High Wycombe locals had been replaced by a posse of mums and grandmas from Chelmsford, supporting their girls against the Bournemouth ones, who appeared to have come by coach without a posse of supporters.
As with the High Wycombe folk, the Chelmsford women were very welcoming towards us, in our capacity of independent observers. They seemed quite accepting of the fact that we were only going to be able to watch about 10 overs of the girls match, which started a bit later than advertised, as I needed to get back to Lord’s to curate tennis club night.
Chelmsford were fielding, and the mums/grandmas were in a state of great excitement for almost every ball, even at this early stage of the match. “Stop the ball”, “throw it in”, “back it up”…
The match seemed well poised when we left at the 10 over mark. We learn from this Bournemouth School Facebook posting that Bournemouth scored 125/7 in their 20 overs and took the match to a last ball finish, from which Chelmsford prevailed. I dread to think what a state those Chelmsford mums and grandmas were in by the time it got to that last ball, given their level of excitement in the early stages. Just as well that defibrillator is at hand, plus a St John’s Ambulance presence, despite the small crowd.
We had a lovely time. Wormsley is a beautiful ground. And it was great to support the Knight-Stokes state schools competition in its inaugural year.
Unfortunately Janie and I cannot be at the Lord’s final this year, as we shall be at the Edgbaston test match that week. But I would thoroughly recommend that people attend if they can. The quality of the cricket, both boys and girls, was pleasingly high. We also met some really engaged and engaging cricket enthusiasts watching on, who will no doubt be at Lord’s in numbers, on Finals Day, 10 September 2026.
Janie and I blocked out the day to do research for our planned house refurb, and to visit Lord’s. We wanted to take a look at some women’s cricket – two matches against a visiting squad from the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and a Real Tennis Women’s Day that had been organised around the SCG visit. Oh, and we were also going on to the Wigmore Hall for an evening concert.
Mr Logistics (that’s me) worked out that all of this activity could be undertaken in Bayswater and Marylebone, mostly on foot with some minimal use of the underground sauna otherwise known as The Tube.
The paint business took a little longer than we expected, whereas the SCG Women’s Team dispatching the Middlesex Women’s team apparently took less time than people had expected. Basically Janie and I arrived in the pavilion as the first cricket match was concluded.
No matter – we were a bit peckish having walked from Westbourne Grove to Lord’s, so we soldiered on to the Nursery End of the ground, where I had been wanting to show Janie HoAM – the tasteful new cafe in the performance centre – for quite some time.
Tasteful environment, with tasty and mostly healthy grub
Determined not to miss out on seeing some cricket we made sure we were back in the pavilion for the very start of the second match.
Getting ready to goAh, cricket!
But we really wanted to have a proper look at the real tennis women’s day, so only watched the cricket for a few minutes before retreating to the tennis.
Ah, off to see the tennis I suppose…
…said Paul, the steward, who seems to have us well and truly worked out by now.
The atmosphere was warm and convivial – aided and abetted by some fizzy pop of the intoxicating kind, provided generously by Graeme Marks.
Janie and I politely declined. We had photos to take, shelving to examine, shoes to buy and music to listen to. It could be positively dangerous to do those things under the influence.
Several of the women, plus Chris Bray, warming down in the dedans (above)…while Mary Strevens and Lucie Grosset warmed for the final round robin match up on the court.
Janie and I watched that final round robin match: Mary Strevens & Lucie Grosset v Rhona Russell & Anisha Charania. It was a good battle, fought hard. Mary and Lucie were on the wrong end of the match itself yet fighting hard to try to scrap an extra game or two. We discovered that they were striving for a final place that would be determined on the number of games and boy did they show some fight to get there.
Ahead of the final, which Janie and I were unfortunately unable to attend due to our furniture appointment in a more southerly quarter of Marylebone, I was commissioned to take the group photo. Janie took a photo of me taking the photo, which rather breaks the “Bismarck” laws and sausages rule, in my opinion.
A dozen people all smiling with their eyes open doesn’t just happen, you knowThanks to Kate Evers for the photo finalists Sarah Sullivan, Mary Strevens, Chris Bray (marker) Peta Louise Jeffery & Lucie Grossett.
Mary Strevens is a new addition to the MCC squad, who had the dubious honour of playing her first competitive match for the MCC in January’s MCC v Old Harrovians match partnering me. We did OK. Still, failing to learn her lesson, Mary has also attended club nights on several occasions and also skills night. So, despite the fact that she is significantly better at tennis than I am, I feel that she is to some extent my mentee. Yet, despite that, she has nevertheless retained a strong competitive spirit and will to win, which progressed, in partnership with Lucie Grosset, into a tournament win on the day. Well done to both of them.
But everyone’s a winner on such a day, really. The spirit and convivial atmosphere was wonderful to behold, as was the quality of the tennis emerging from a morning of coaching followed by an afternoon mini tournament. I do hope the idea can become a regular feature in our MCC real tennis calendar.
You don’t want to know about our furniture research and Janie’s shoe shopping, now do you? Thought not.
But just in case you do want to know about the guitar and tenor concert we heard at the Wigmore Hall, here’s a link:
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.
(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.
During tea, we saw Kranti Gaud warming up by repeatedly bowling straightOh Gaud – she got Tammy Beaumont first ball in Tammy’s last international innings
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.
28 June 2026: Bangladesh Women v South Africa Women, & Australia Women v India Women
Unfurl the flags…
We plugged for an elevated view on the day of the Lord’s double-header. Janie’s favourite pavilion spot for relaxed viewing is the sun deck at the top. There was plenty of space for us up there, despite our late arrival, after playing our traditional Sunday game of lawn in Boston Manor Park.
Digging the relaxed dress code
We caught the end of the Bangladesh v South Africa match, much of which I saw on the TV while Janie was getting ready to go to Lord’s. South Africa looked well set when we left home, then tried hard to choke at the end of that match, then choked in the matter of choking, thus going on to win the match with very little time to spare.
The sun deck remained sparsely populated, although we were joined by Sidney Yankson and his charming belle, Claire. Sidney is a real tennis afficionado – the Number One Real Tennis Hongkonger by his own RTO description – and the person who was daft enough to select me for one of my earliest representative real tennis matches.
Anyway, after a suitably brief interval between the two matches, we enjoyed the flag unfurling and anthem ceremony for Australia v India.
India batted first and seemed to have posted a modest score. India needed to win this match in order to knock out South Africa, whereas Australia were guaranteed top of the group billing whatever happened in the match.
We left Lord’s about half way through Australia’s innings, which seemed to be tottering a bit, but caught the end of the match on TV when we got home, by which time the Aussies had untottered.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day of neutral matches.
5 July 2026: Rita Ora, Clean Bandit, & The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final
Not just excited…pumped!
For the world cup final, we got to Lord’s in good time and grabbed seats close to the action – i.e. some end of row seats near the front of the terrace. This seemed to be the corner of choice for several members of the real tennis community – Barry Nathan was there with his wife, Ruth. Also nearby were Robert & Carol Muir, Brian & Priscilla Sharp were also nearby, as was Graeme Marks.
The dancing girls comprised a selection panel before the Rita Ora concert. Barry seemed a bit reluctant. I suggested that they work on Sharpy…Rita Ora caught the spirit
Did we dance? Of course we danced.
The serious business of moving and grooving
Even Graeme Marks took some illicit footage of us having a go during the Rita Ora gig:
I enjoyed the Rita Ora music, which comprised some of her best known songs:
In truth, I was more than a little disappointed that Rita didn’t perform Hot Right Now, which I believe is the paciest of her numbers. Indeed, I had been practicing for days dancing in exactly the style and rate of the artistes in the following video:
Rumour has it that the authorities thought that 176 bpm in 30°C weather might be a bit much for MCC members, given the age demographic. Health and safety gone mad.
I mean, what was the point of me having a hip replacement last year if the powers that be don’t give me the chance to dance in a Hot Right Now stylee on the forecourt of the Lord’s pavilion?
Take away the sound stage.
Hard yakka in the heatThis geezer had a method for staying cool
I hadn’t realised it, but there was also to be a cricket match, as a polite interval between the two popular music concerts; an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final between Australia Women and England Women.
Unfurl the flags and anthems:
We were too polite to take pictures of the cricket match itself, which rather went Australia’s way, predictably.
But when Clean Bandit came on to get us all listening and dancing again…
…Janie and I were ready to dance some more. Earlier in the day, when Rita Ora performed, Sharpy told me, rather pointedly:
your good lady knows how to dance…
…which I took to mean that he thought that I don’t know how to dance.
Well, for the Clean Bandit concert, Janie and I both got busy with the video functions of our cameras, so you can all judge for yourselves, dear readers.
Suffice it to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the event, regardless of what you think of our dancing.
That looks more like football than cricket to my tired eyes
Middlesex Double Feature: Men v Surrey & Women v Leicestershire, Sunday 24 May 2026
The end of the men’s game
Janie and I were not going to let a double header of county T20 cricket interrupt our regular schedule of playing tennis (modern) on a Sunday morning, before washing and smartening ourselves up a bit and heading to Lord’s.
The men’s game was scheduled ahead of the women’s game. We figured that seating in the pavilion was not going to be a problem for late arrivals. We were right.
While sprucing, I caught the end of the Middlesex innings of the men’s game and adjudged Middlesex to be many runs short of a competitive target. Indeed I, of little faith, told Janie that I thought we might not make it in time to see the end of the men’s match.
Actually, when we arrived, Middlesex were flattering to deceive…or providing a faint glimmer of misplaced hope…before succumbing to the inevitable before our eyes quite soon after we arrived.
There was a seemingly unnecessary long interval between the men’s match and the women’s match – almost encouraging those less devoted to women’s cricket to depart before seeing the second match.
Janie and I chatted at length with my tennis friend Barry Nathan and his good lady. Barry informed us that the men’s and women’s matches had been switched, timewise, because the TV company couldn’t imagine anyone watching the men’s cricket match at the same time as football play-offs were taking place on other sports channels. It’s all about TV sports scheduling these days – who knew?
It was a blisteringly hot afternoon, but the pavilion forecourt offered shady respite from the worst excesses of the relentless May heatwave sun. Barry recommended the view from the new Allen Stand – what there is of it at this stage – but not the very top, uncovered section, obviously.
I resolved to avoid jokes with phrases such as “Foxy ladies” (for the Leicestershire Foxes Women) or “hot totty” to describe a women’s match on the hottest May day since records began.
Janie and I gave that a try, until we realised that the middle tier, shady though it was, and excellent view though it provided, effectively had a radiator above it, in the form of the depopulated uncovered top section.
We retreated back to the pavilion, but not before I was accosted by a young man whose face looked vaguely familiar. He greeted me like an old friend and told his mate in slightly inebriated terms that he’d met me in the locker room and that I was an expert on tennis and cricket history. I waxed briefly about 1875 And All That, in the style of a minor celebrity who feels that he has to perform in his show-biz demeanour, while bemoaning the fact that my history expertise was not doing a great job of remembering this young man, nor whether he was tennis, squash or in the locker room for some other reason. I guessed tennis and probably showed the requisite amount of remembering to get a bare pass at recent history.
The “meeja” action unfolded right before our eyes…as did the “mill around until the other team bats” action
We left a few overs in to the Leicestershire innings and caught the end of that match on the stream when we got home. Much like the men’s match, Middlesex flattered to deceive for a while but came second in the end.
Tournament-wise, the men’s team are doing their normal thing of barely winning a game, whereas the Middlesex women (albeit Division Two) have only lost the one game out of five so far as I write – it just happened to be the one that we attended.
Still, an enjoyable, albeit swealtering, afternoon at Lord’s.
England v New Zealand Test Match: 4 to 7 June 2026
Day Four With Daisy
I attended days one, two & four of this match. Good pick – day three was a near washout.
Days one and two I attended alone, having arranged to play some tennis as well as watch cricket on both days.
I try to book slots on the test match days that do not coincide with the intervals in play. This is not to avoid watching cricket, but more to try leaving the pre-match, lunchtime and post-match slots to players whose tennis performances have more “showtime” potential than the tennis I play.
Unfortunately, as the weather had turned shoddy for this test match, our lowly 12:00 fixture on day one coincided imperfectly with a rain interval. The viewing gallery filled up with people. Hecklers from our own real tennis cohort in the inner part of the dedans gallery. Bemused patrons in the dedans gallery bar, who had come to Lord’s in search of international standard elite sport, yet were, instead, faced with four keen but aging gents “having a go” as best we could. Hopefully, come the third or fourth glass of fizz, visitors could barely tell the difference between international cricket and amateur tennis.
This 1 min carefully selected sample from the MCC Club Weekend tournament at Lord’s in January 2026
I played again at 5:00pm, a slightly more high falutin’ game than the 12:00 bout, mercifully without a crowd for the tennis, as New Zealand were starting their innings. I played rather well, and was delighted to hear several huge cheers from the crowd beyond, as I landed a few rare winners during a good 10 minute period. I was a little deflated to learn later that the authorities weren’t showing my winners on the big screens – it was Ollie Robinson taking three wickets in an over on the cricket pitch.
The bit of cricket I saw on day one I mostly watched from the pavilion.
I got to see far more of the cricket on day two, after playing tennis at 11:00. The weather was better and I took up one of my more regular positions near Old Father Time at the despised end of the Tavern Stand. It is the least crowded members and friends area and therefore the easiest place for nomadic members, like me, who like to wander a bit more than most. After tea, I took to the pavilion sundeck, which was pretty crowded but a good place to just mingle and watch on a bit, before sitting again in the Tavern Stand for a chunk of the last hour.
Day four was supposed to be a day at Lord’s with Janie, but we knew before the start of play that it would probably only be an hour or two. Janie is always happy with that. In any case we take a modest picnic if it is just the two of us and Janie is always happy to get a chunk of such a day back, having taken in the Lord’s atmosphere and enjoyed some action. Seeing the end of a match has a certain form of satisfaction to it, which some MCC afficionados consider to be quite unneccessary; perhaps even a bit common.
Sporting my pillbox
I had received plenty of positive feedback throughout the match on my new choice of headgear – the pillbox cap rather than the peaked cap. Pillbox caps were all the rage until peaked caps became fashionable for sports from the last quarter of the 19th century.
Robert Allan Fitzgerald sporting an MCC pillbox cap. Drawing not all totally to scale.
I have now ordered another pillbox cap that looks even more like MCC colours. I’m going to start lobbying the MCC shop to start producing and selling proper MCC ones. The pillbox cap feels like a fashion whose time should come once again.
Anyway, Janie and I saw more than 90 minutes of cricket and I got half of Janie’s ticket money back!
Not a classic test match but still, as pretty much always, enjoyable times at Lord’s.
Some Sort Of MCC Cricket Day At Lord’s With Michael Mainelli, 11 June 2026
Michael has visited Lord’s with me many times, for both domestic and international cricket. Apart from the odd rain delay, we have never previously experienced a washout.
But this day was well and truly a washout and was destined to be so for several days in the build up.
Never mind. There are worse places to be than Lord’s. I showed Michael the library where I am doing a lot of my research, then we watched the last set-and-a-half of a good in-house tournament tennis match, which went down to the wire. Then we retired to the Long Room Bar / Old Library for luncheon after taking a stroll around in what, by now, was just persistent drizzle, which prevented mopping up after the torrential rain of the mid-to-late morning, ensuring no cricket play at all that day.
Michael presented me with a fridge magnet, in honour of Ogblog, emblazoned thus:
Whatever can Michael mean? You can absolutely rely on me to report matters faithfully from my point of view on Ogblog.
After Michael departed, I spent a couple of hours at Tennis Committee and then a further couple of hours at a town hall meeting in Pelhams Restaurant to discuss gender diversity in the MCC.
I even went back the next morning for another very enjoyable game of tennis.
I do now have my own locker at Lord’s – perhaps I should consider keeping a sleeping bag there as well.
The weather chose to improve a little at the start of May – my previous attempts at watching county championship cricket so far this season had led only to some glimpses from the safety of the Long Room and/or Writing Room behind glass, April was so chilly.
I got to Lord’s just before lunch was called, then got ready for a bout of doubles tennis early afternoon, with a collection of players similar to the Bionic Quartet reported last summer:
One of our number was having his first go back after surgery, so we played for fun off the book.
I had informally arranged to meet up at some point in the afternoon with Ed Griffiths (our London Cricket Trust mastermind) and Madz, who does some photography for Durham CCC. Can it really be four years since Madz last came to Lord’s on such a mission in May?
Anyway, as it turned out, Ed was delayed until much later than he had intended to arrive, and Madz was engaged with matters photographic and the like also until late afternoon.
I thought I’d photograph Matt Potts in action this time, while waiting for the others
In the end, all three of us watched from the Warner Stand for a while late in the day. Here’s the scorecard from that match. A high-scoring draw. Why can’t they produce result pitches at Lord’s, I hear some irate, know-it-all readers cry!
The pavilion was a bit less crowded than this…actually a lot less crowded
John Fry and I had not really kept in touch at all after leaving Alleyn’s School back before the dawn of time. We were in the same class for, we think, just one year – the third year for me and the first year for him. We were both fast-tracked into the Bear Pit when just 15 – in John’s case on the grounds of talent and in my case possibly because I was in the right place at the right time to look the part.
Anyway, for reasons too daft to explain, John re-engaged with me earlier this year and invited me to a delightful lunch at his club, The Union Club, in late January 2026.
I wanted to reciprocate, but I don’t really have a club. Well, I suppose I do – the MCC, but John doesn’t much like cricket.
The solution was to invite John to Lord’s on a minor match day, when the ground is not crowded, the lunch is still a decent lunch and the cricket is as important or unimportant as you want it to be. John had never seen the place before and liked the idea.
Hence MCC Women’s Day.
I played tennis first thing against Paul Buchanan-Barrow who, coincidentally, had been my doubles partner 18 months earlier in the famous international fixture against the visitors from Newport, Rhode Island. Coincidental, because Paul and I had done battle with a women’s pair that day.
Paul wasn’t sticking around for the women’s cricket, so I waited alone for John, taking in a bit of the atmosphere of the day. Despite the early season scheduling, it was actually a bright sunny day which offered to be warm enough to watch in the great outdoors by afternoon.
But first, on John’s arrival, I thought I’d give him the informal pavilion tour. Rather unexpectedly, we ran into the Club President, Ed Smith, who greeted me warmly as we had not seen each other for some time, and later also the Chairman and CEO, all of whom were showing their faces and/or entertaining folk on this quiet but iconic day.
The potentially pompous experience reminded me of the following 2009 evening I wrote up for King Cricket…
…in which my old friend Stentor Baritone and I showed young Lavender and Escamillo around the pavilion.
That made me wonder what had become of Stentor, as I hadn’t heard from him since before the pandemic. Nor had he heard from me. I resolved to get in touch with Stentor by e-mail some time soon, but, strangely, Daisy and I bumped into him at The Royal Court Theatre the very next evening. Now that’s weird.
John seemed to be enjoying the cricket more than I thought he would, but I managed to wrestle him away from such distractions from our main purpose, taking lunch in the Long Room Bar, then showing him the library and the tennis court and the Performance Centre. There we took some tea in Filipa’s and watched the sun starting to come out in reasonable force.
That gave us the courage to watch some cricket from the Mound Stand, where normal people sit and watch and where you can take a little early season sun.
The day flew by, as Lord’s days do.
While gently watching on, John mentioned, in passing, that he had “a little bit of cricket heritage” in his family. Somewhere in the cousinhood, he couldn’t quite remember, women cricketers – twins as it happens. He’d try to track down the reference later.
I felt a surge of imposter syndrome – wondering whether my guests have more right (at least by birthright) to be hosts at Lord’s than I do – similar to the feeling I had when I took John Random to Lord’s seven years ago. Another friend who claimed no connection with cricket…except for his grandfather Herbert Ireland who was a doyen of Widnes CC to the extent that the function room at that club is named after him. See the Thursday entry “A Random Ramble Around Lord’s” in the diary piece below.
It must be something about people named John with equity surnames and left leanings.
Random as Trotsky
Joking apart, it was a most enjoyable day milling around Lord’s with John Fry.
“And the cricket?”, I hear you cry. Really? You can read all about it here. In fact, if you really want to, you can even watch it all on the stream recording, below:
The subject was Sobers, Janie was, believe it or not, sober
I spotted and booked this one on the members’ on-line system, before it was announced and several weeks before Alan Rees mentioned it to me in the library.
An interesting character, Garry (or should I say Sir Garfield) Sobers. As David Tossell said in his opening remarks about his book, Sobers has not been well served in print previously, with several books of dubious quality and little digging into his impoverished early life and his colourful career.
Before the talk, a traditional Library Book Club supper with two tasty courses, the most photogenic of which was the pud:
Then the talk.
David Tossell peppered his talk with fascinating anecdotes and well-chosen visualsAttentive. No attention deficit here. Which is more than might be said for Sobers
I can hardly wait to read the book. I expect there’ll be a reference in it to that day in 2009, which was surely a major moment in Garry Sobers cricket career…at least it was in mine.
Seriously, as always it was a most enjoyable evening; initially the dining and chatting with interesting folk around us. Then the bonus of a fascinating book talk.
Two Men’s Singles Semi-Finals & The Women’s Singles Final At Queen’s, 22 November 2025
Janie and I warmed up for this event by having our regular hour of “lawn” at Boston Manor, albeit at 10:00 rather than our regular hour of 11:00. We then hot-footed it (if you can hot-foot by car) to the flat dropping off some old computer equipment headed for charity, then picked up Janie’s flashy new specs, then got to The Queen’s Club about 30 or 40 minutes into the first match.
Simon Talbot-Williams greeted us both warmly from his stewarding position, while simultaneously telling me off “for being late”, before helping organise our seating.
Just as well we warmed up for the event, as the dedans gallery had a real chill breeze feel to it, despite the nicely positioned radiator near our feet.
Must have felt even colder up there in the “makeshift media gallery”.
We caught the end of the match between Nicky Howell and Rob Fahey. Then saw all of the match between John Lumley and Bryn Sayers.
After taking some tea and chatting with the assembled real tennis glitterati, Janie and I saw Claire Fahey’s historic win in the final against Tara Lumley.
Our first sight of women’s tennis played at the highest level
Historic, in that the women’s final hadn’t been at Queen’s for decades. We both thought that the format including both men’s and women’s matches was an excellent idea.
More of this men’s and women’s tennis on the same day, please, Janie and I say.
On searching on-line for the results, Google’s AI Overview, for once, has not hallucinated. The following summarises matters expertly.
Men’s (Open) Singles Semi-finals
Two Men’s Singles semi-final matches were played during the afternoon.
Fixture: N. Howell bt R. Fahey
Score: 6/2 6/2 6/5
Start Time: 2:00 PM
Fixture: J. Lumley bt B. Sayers
Score: 6/5 6/3 6/2
Start Time: 4:00 PM (approx)
Women’s Singles Final
Claire Fahey defeated Tara Lumley in the final match, which began at 6:45 PM.
Fixture: C. Fahey bt T. Lumley
Score: 6/0 6/0
What the AI cannot do is express how much we enjoyed our afternoon and early evening at Queen’s, watching high grade tennis. It’s just a shame it was unseasonably cold!
Victory In Australia by Richard Whitehead, MCC Library Book Club, Lord’s, 26 November 2025
Janie and I very much enjoy these library book club supper evenings. This one, at which Richard Whitehead discussed his book about the 1954/55 Ashes tour, might not have attracted our attention, but for Alan Rees (head librarian) taking pains to let me know how much he had enjoyed that book and was thrilled to have secured an evening with Richard.
Save the date…
said Alan a good few weeks before the evening was announced. Hence, once it was announced…we pounced to get tickets.
We were very glad we did. The food and company is always good. On this occasion, as a bonus, we found ourselves next to my real tennis pal of old, Jim Chaudry. Jim has been “off games” for some while now, but I occasionally see him at cricket and have spotted him a few times at the library book club dinners, but until this time, not at my table.
Jim knows how to hold his knife and fork, whereas…
The food was, as always, excellent. Janie went into full tilt food porn photo mode this time.
Both courses depicted on arrival at her place. Thanks, Janie.
As usual, after the talk, the Q&A, and the book signing, Janie and I went home thoroughly pleased and satisfied. That’s some of my holiday reading for our next trip sorted out for sure.
