The pavement outside the St John’s Wood tube station that leads to the Lord’s gate has smartly dressed gentlemen in light suits with dazzling orange and yellow striped ties in an orderly line waiting for hours. These are members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), one of cricket’s oldest institutions, following the good old British tradition that dates back to the days of rationing during World War II. Waiting patiently for their turn the British way, be it at the tube station, bus stop or Lord’s.
There are many worthy British contenders for this title, Wimbledon being one of them, but MCC members call theirs the ‘World’s Greatest Queue’. Few are seated on the folding chairs they are carrying from home, some reading newspapers and most talking cricket. There is no chaos, no cops with batons, just elderly courteous stewards.
Alan Nasher is one of them. Ask him for how many years he has been overseeing the Lord’s queues and he smiles and says “many.”
He knows most of the members, he greets them with a polite ‘nice to see you’. “Some of them are here in the queue at 6 am for the 11 am game. They are here before us,” says Alan before giving the reasons for the MCC member’s early morning vigil.
“Members will have their own sort of area in the pavilion where they would have been sitting for years. It is almost like a first come, first serve. What they do is put their stuff on the seats they want to sit on and after that they are at peace,” he says. While the non-members are allowed inside by 9 am, the gates for members are open early.
Not travelling light
The spectators at Lord’s don’t travel light. Most have picnic baskets, some carrying strawberries and drinks to keep them in high spirits all day. Lord’s, a fiercely private club, allows spectators to carry a couple of beer cans or wine bottles. Ready for any weather eventuality, despite the blazing sun, spectators carry umbrellas and blankets.
Alan says they try their “best to be organised”. At the back of the pavilion, is the entry for the famous Long Room on the ground floor. There is a crowd waiting to get to the seats but they have been asked to wait as the England team bus has arrived. Stopped by a stanchion post and velvet rope, they wait tolerantly for the players to climb up to their dressing room, whose famous balcony looks down cricket’s storied turf.
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Once the members have secured their seats they head out for food corners. There again they queue up for their English breakfast. Once done, there is the beer corner. Another queue to deal with. While returning to their seat, they queue up again.
