That looks more like football than cricket to my tired eyes
Middlesex Double Feature: Men v Surrey & Women v Leicestershire, Sunday 24 May 2026
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
