The sight of Merv Hughes, that magnificent trademark moustache now as pale as his old cricket whites, ringing the bell before play might have served as something of an inspiration for an Australia team struggling to deal with the loss through injury of a key bowler.
It was during the second Ashes Test on this very ground 30 years ago that Australia’s Craig McDermott was taken to hospital in agony with suspected appendicitis, later diagnosed as a twisted bowel, and ruled out of the game and the series. Hughes led the attack as Australia were forced to play on without one of their key bowlers – Mark Waugh shared the new ball – but they won handsomely all the same (it did help, to be fair, that after winning the toss their top four batters scored 111, 152, 164 not out and 99, and they defended the resulting score of 632 for four declared with an innings and 62 runs to spare).
It was also at Lord’s, four years earlier, that Hughes shared a now legendary exchange with the England batter Robin Smith. Feeling on top of their duel, Hughes snarled, “Smith, you can’t fucking bat.” After the next ball was dispatched for four Smith retorted, “Make a good pair, don’t we? I can’t fucking bat, and you can’t fucking bowl.” It is safe to assume that Hughes addressed the denizens of the Lord’s pavilion a little more gently on Friday.
Brook buttered up by celebrated chef
For the third summer Tommy Banks, the chef behind the Michelin-starred Black Swan at Oldstead and Roots in York, has been at Lord’s all week, having taken over the restaurant at the back of the Edrich Stand, imaginatively called The Edrich. It’s just the place for people who like a cultured butter with their cultured batters – lobster and steak also featured on Friday’s lunch menu, along with the less predictable meadowsweet and hogweed.
A keen cricket player and fan, Banks tries to keep an eye on the action while overseeing preparation of breakfast, lunch, tea, post-match snacks – no one’s leaving hungry – and picnic hampers for people in the Warner Stand. “I like to sneak out and watch, but I tend to find that I’ll watch a couple of overs and then I’ll go into the kitchen to do some bits and I never see any wickets – it’s always when you move that one falls,” he tells the Guardian, though he had seen more than enough of England’s morning collapse: “It’s so frustrating. It’s such a rollercoaster. Day one I was a bit frustrated. Day two was just so good – it was set for five good days, it’s good for business, it’s good for cricket, it’s good for everybody. And then a morning like this morning – ach, back to square one.”
It’s not only England supporters who are powered by Banks’s creations – he also played a part in the ascent of an actual team member. “I know Harry Brook very well,” he says. “He ate in our restaurant early last summer and I texted him not that long ago and said: ‘Do you realise since you ate at Roots you average about 120?’ [His first-class average since the start of last summer has since dropped to a mere 90.86.] So it’s clearly that that’s done it.”
A jarring lunchtime note for England’s players
Lunchtime entertainment was provided on Friday by the British army band Tidworth, who ran (well, marched) through a few patriotic classics while moving between positions in front of the Grand Stand, the Tavern Stand and the Pavilion. It was while standing in front of the Pavilion, with the players just yards away, that they chose to launch into the Dambusters theme – though surely England could have done without the musical reminder that their defences had just been repeatedly breached by Australia’s bouncing bombs.