For many, summer doesn’t really start until the cricket does. Or, to be precise, the summer Test series, often commencing at the hallowed Lord’s Cricket Ground, which this year is celebrating its bicentenary. England’s opponents were Sri Lanka.

An old friend and I go to the cricket every year for a carefree day of carousing and catching up.

So, on the first day of the First Test, we met before noon, got stuck in to a bottle of sparkling rosé, and soaked up the sunny atmosphere: portly gentlemen in ‘egg and bacon’ MCC ties (striped red and yellow); excited youngsters on a first visit to the Home of Cricket; the amazing array of hats; cooking aromas from food stalls; enthusiasts simultaneously watching play and listening to Test Match Special on ear-pieces, all the while updating their score cards; Sri Lankan supporters sporting golden sword-wielding gryphon logos; and the constant gentle hum swelling to applause whenever runs were scored or wickets fell.

During the lunch interval, girls and boys came out to play mini-cricket, while we giggled and gossiped. What a blissfully relaxing afternoon! The score at stumps almost inconsequential to enshrining a day to reaffirm friendship and celebrate that funny old game, cricket.

Images by Nadine Mellor