Azeem Rafiq made a low-key return to his former club while fans enjoyed collecting pint pots and some explosive batting
A crowd might normally be expected to quieten during breaks in play, but as the afternoon session paused for drinks the volume on Headingley’s famed Western Terrace increased. People cheered as a man dressed as a lobster downed a pint of beer. A group in yellow blazers bantered with an adjacent group wearing orange cassocks, two flocks of brightly coloured parrots screeching loudly enough to be heard on the other side of the ground.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire’s decision to ban beer snakes, the comically long stacks of empty pint pots so beloved of cricket fans, forced luminous-jacketed stewards to engage in a series of slow-motion chase scenes with unruly cup-collectors, one of whom was amateurishly but unmistakably disguised as Scooby Doo. The England team have been restyled as great entertainers but the fans’ response has been: hold my empty beer. And also this one. And several dozen more. And now run!
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