First trial of fans returning to live sport since Covid-19 shutdown
It was only 10.30 on a quiet Sunday morning in Kennington, south
London, but the beers were already flowing. And for good reason.
After four months of cardboard cutouts warming the seats of silent stadiums across the
UK, spectators finally returned in the flesh to sport for a friendly county
Cricket fixture between Surrey and Middlesex at the Oval.“It has been the highlight of the lockdown, as it were,” said Neil Fraser, who attended alongside his partner, Jenny. “This has been something that I’ve missed – we’ve been waiting for cricket to come back and this is the first time we have been out in the whole time.”They were two among an exclusive and fortunate group. Surrey county cricket club boasts 13,500 members and the Oval, its home ground, has a capacity of 25,500, yet just 1,000 seats were available. Surrey Cricket had been uncertain about the number of fans who would even be interested, but on Wednesday morning the dozen staff members manning the phones were overwhelmed by 10,000 calls placed in the first hour alone.“I rang quite a few times, got horrible lift
music for half an hour,” said John, a 15-year-long club member from Chelmsford, Essex. “I complained a bit, and that worked. At 3 o’clock I got through. Ten thousand calls in the first hour! I don’t know how I got a ticket in the end.”