Pics of Day 1 at Lords

I thought I'd make those of you that haven't made it to Lords for the West Indies Test Match a little jealous. Despite the gloomy conditions on the first day, the calypso band on their steel drums made sure that we all got in the mood.

Did we need any encouragement? I'm not sure anyone did...more time with the players off just meant that after a little grumble about how the light seemed perfectly playable, most spectators hit the bars. Even by lunch time several were dancing away to the band.

Clouds - as you can see it was a pretty overcast day. But it was incredible how play carried on in the late morning and early afternoon in gloomy conditions, and then as soon as we got to the evening session the umpires started getting all twitchy about the light.

You can read my burble about bad light issues here, but suffice is to say that this photo was taken before lunch and it was the same gloom when the players were taken off. On Day 2 of course they were even taken off against the will of the England players it seemed!


I'm not sure if you'll be able to make it out but in the background is the list of match officials. I couldn't help wondering why there needs to be four umpires and a match referee. What on earth do they all do? As far as I can see the 4th umpires duties seem to entail taking spare balls and light meters out to the umpires in the middle occassionally. The rest of the time they get to sit back and enjoy the Test Match.

I'd like to see their job descriptions....jobs for the boys maybe?