More News Management ?
In a week of such implausibly summer-like weather I found it impossible not to visit Lord's for the opening of the cricket season. As York- shire were (by custom) playing the MCC, this was partly an exile's homage to the greatest of cricketing counties. But Lord's also happens to be one of the few public places in London where hot weather can be enjoyed without reservation. As an infrequent visitor I find something singu- larly soothing about the continuity of the scene. In the Tavern I heard a little group of rather down-at-heel cognoscenti discussing Boycott's century in elaborately-polished public-school voices. Surely they have always been there? They were certainly on hand when I was first intro- duced to the pleasures of warm beer and cricket- watching at that spot by Dylan Thomas years ago. How disturbing to reflect that at the end of this season the Tavern is to be pulled down. Will wanton change never cease?
The only other shadow on the day came from the cricket article in the evening paper. Amid that dignified prose I was startled by the phrase: 'Talking to someone close to Yorkshire the other
day . . This is the language of political correspondents. not cricket writers. 'Those close to the Prime Minister believe . . .' We have all heard how the lobby journalists have been tamed by a certain politician. Come to think of it. he would surely like to be disguised as 'someone close to Yorkshire.' What have I stumbled upon? Has he turned his attention to the cricket correspondents now?
J. W. M. THOMPSON
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