England v New Zealand at the Oval in 1999 – a match report

2 minute read

Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.)

Daisy writes…

I had never been to a professional cricket match before. Until then, my entire experience of watching cricket was limited to:

• My dad stopping the car and insisting on watching for a while if he spotted some random cricket on a village green or school playing field we happened to be passing
• More recently, Ged’s attempts to get some charity cricket going with his colleagues and friends

A few days before my first ever day at the Test, Ged moved into my flat for six weeks, while he was having his flat refurbished. Those six weeks became four months, but that’s a different story.

My diary is light on detail about this match. Just the one word, “Oval”, about the cricket match. Lots of notes about a cashmere sale at Fulham Town Hall that I had intended to visit that day.

I made the picnic. Probably, in those days, I cooked some sausages in the morning and wrapped them in foil so they would still be warm for lunch. Nibbles of carrot and baby tomatoes no doubt. Probably sandwiches and biscuits as well.

There was a party atmosphere at that match. We partied like it was 1999 – which, of course, it was.

A couple of events stick in my mind. A young woman, with a group of male friends, were all getting very drunk. Suddenly, the fulsome lass removed her top and ran around the stand topless, to the excitement of many in the crowd, until the stewards encouraged her to cover up and return to her seat.

Ged said: “That’s it, baby. When you’ve got it, flaunt it!” and then had to mollify me by explaining the source of his quote.

We went home by tube. Ged told me that we might well see Bob Willis at the Oval underground station. We did not.

Instead, we saw hundreds of fans who were alternately singing, “Nasser Hussain is having a party, bring some beer and a bottle of Bacardi,” and, “Nasser Hussain is having a party, bring some beers and a packet of charley”. This seemed amusing at first, became tedious after two minutes and went on for at least 20 minutes.