The Ashes are upon us, with all eyes on Cardiff on 5th July 2009 for the first Test, as the nation hopes to revisit the glorious summer of 2005 and reclaim the coveted urn. It seems only fair; we invented the game after all. In fact the modern rules of the game were created in Hambledon, Hampshire in the famous Bat & Ball pub back in the 1750s. To recognise its great cricketing past and to mark the start of the Ashes, Visit Winchester has launched its Cricket Guide – a tour of the landmarks of the sport’s evolution in Hampshire.
For those of us who can’t get tickets to the Tests, or who simply want to learn more about the sport’s historic past, the Cricket Guide takes visitors on a self-guided tour around the “cradle of cricket”. Usefully for those on a weekend break, cricket’s evolution seems to be strongly interwoven with inns and pubs. The guide can be downloaded from the Visit Winchester website.
