The highest part of the ground offers a vantage point that reveals both less and more as England and India battle it out
There’s a long view from the top of the Edrich stand, these days. Make the mountainous climb to the new highest point of the Lord’s ground, and you can see out over blocks of flats, past London’s southwestern sprawl, all the way past the river. The green ridge of a wooded hill rises from the horizon like a mirage – that can’t, surely, be Richmond? – and gives you the sense that you’ve discovered your own private periscope above the crowded city.
Kumar Sangakkara, MCC’s current president, officially opened the new Compton and Edrich stands on the first day of the Test here. Just before play, he cut the ceremonial ribbon that the press release insisted was scarlet and gold, even if everyone in the ground knew that was just a fancy way of saying egg and bacon. But the spectators at the Hundred matches have been filling these seats for weeks now. They’ve already learned that you pace yourselves on the stairs if you don’t want to get a headrush.
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