Tag Archives: Cricket

Cricket a la Mode

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As a person who lives near the Oval you may at some point be asked to attend a cricket match, and if cricket isn’t exactly your wicket then this piece is for you as we’ll introduce you to other things going on there. Recently some of the Observer staff attended the T20 Blast series at the Oval.  This was booked through  our underused colleague Mark over on the sports desk. Or his name might be Mike. Anyway, we wholly thank Mark/Mike for making this unusual sports foray possible.

The primary feature of T20 cricket is that the matches are compressed into three hours, and are fast past and undertaken in the evening, making it more appealing to neophytes such as us, and we used AI to teach us the basics. We saw the London Derby of Surrey vs. Middlesex and the punters were certainly more, shall we say, energetic than the punters we saw on a previous daytime session, who appeared to engage with the sport primarily whilst snoring.

One fun activity is to wander around and learn about the history of the grounds and cricket greats such as Alec Bedser and Ian Ward. We frankly have no idea who these people are but they have very interesting stories. On the pitch you can grab £1000 if you catch a ball, which appeared highly unlikely given the sobriety level of the crowd. There were also fireworks, ozone destroying fireballs, a T-Shirt cannon and of course nothing could yell ‘Greater Kennington’ more than the addition of a drag queen. As a bonus, cricket appears to be one of the only sports that you can enjoy while chatting with people around you or even on the phone. It was a wonderfully lively bunch.

No day out for us would be complete without stuffing our face, and it was provided by the excellent Kerb catering, who do a more upmarket version of football grub. We saw venison burgers, loads of hot chicken, Indian, Greek, fish-n-chips, loaded fries, BBQ and more. Your scribe had a chicken shish wrap from Lil Watan and intern Paul had a delicious Punjabi naan wrap from Baby Dhaba. One place where they sting you is at the bar. They have fancy craft beer and fine wines, but our Brixton Pale Ale and a can of wine (they’re a thing) was over £18. However, on some fixtures you can bring in your own booze but sadly not T20. This probably explains why Phil from accounts vanished when it was his round. But as it was Phil he could have just been kicked out.

We greatly admire any sport that you can observe while scrolling on your phone, talking, sleeping, or being flogged a car. So if you’re feeling inspired by this article, admission starts at £20 and there are many other matches available. If you want to discover more about the history of the Oval, including the man who walked 1000 miles around it fuelled only by brandy infused tea, we’ve got you covered.   

The Observer Gets Sporty

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We recently scored members seats for the Oval Pavilion to catch a cricket match. These were procured through our Sport correspondent Mark. As you can imagine, in our office Mark has a great deal of time on his hands and in fact we forgot he existed.  He was therefore more than happy to give us a tour of the Pavilion and the artifacts it contains. Tours are also available to the general public.

The Pavilion acts a fascinating backdrop to the sport and we learned about the cricket prowess of legends such as Len Hutton, Graham Gooch and Stuart Broad. To be honest we’ve never heard of these people but their dedication to the sport appears to be remarkable and their achievements abound. Also abundant are trophies, jackets, bats and balls from varying generations. If you want to know more about how the Oval was the world’s first for profit sporting venue, we wrote about it a few weeks ago. Mark can be seen below pointing at a black void.

As part of our day with Mark we actually saw a match and were able to walk onto the pitch. Seated amongst a dizzyingly diverse array of geriatric white men reading actual newspapers, it was quite a revelation to learn that cricket is one of the few sports that you appreciate whilst reading, talking, or indeed even sleeping. Mark exhibited immaculate decorum when we asked such probing questions as ‘how do they get the grass stains out’ and ‘why can’t they just wear shorts’? The view from the Pavilion to the Vauxhall riviera was worth the ticket price itself.

Match play doesn’t start again until April of next year, so seeing the men in white ply their trade is one for your sparkly diary. Tickets for many matches are just £15 and its great fun. It isn’t it so fun if it is your round at the bar as three drinks set us back £28, Luckily if it’s a county fixture you can bring in your own booze. On match days there are also an impressive number of food outlets, from venison burgers to curry.

A tour of the Pavilion and grounds is a great way to know more about the sport and how it shaped Greater Kennington, and how Greater Kennington in turn shaped the Oval. Tours of the Pavilion and grounds take place at 10:30am daily. While you might not witness the unbridled fascination of seeing a man reading the Telegraph whilst asleep, you’ll learn a lot more about the national sport and the other sports that were once played there.