Network of 65 hubs for nearly 3,000 children at state schools had their first national finals for boys and girls at the home of cricket
Lord’s was quiet, and the shout from the Tavern Stand carried right across the ground. “Girls! Girls!” A reply from the first floor of the pavilion came back just as loud. “Yes mum?” Then “Come back out on the balcony, your dad wants to take a photo.” Three giggling teenagers filed out of the home dressing room, where they had been taking turns to sit in what the attendant had just told them was Joe Root’s usual spot.
Alastair Cook says he used to dream about playing at Lord’s when he was a kid. In his mind’s eye, Harold Pinter always saw it the way he did when he skipped school to watch Yorkshire and arrived in time to see Len Hutton hit a cut up the slope. In Tarsao prisoner-of-war camp, Jim Swanton used to entertain the other captives by conjuring accounts of the matches he saw at Lord’s before the second world war. Charlie Watts wanted to take John Arlott’s commentary along as one of his Desert Island Discs because it reminded him of “going along with Mick to Lord’s, and England in summer”. For a certain type of English fan, Lord’s has always been home.