London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [8]
Chief rivals of Manchester United in the Premier League, Champions League finalists in 2008 and Premier League title and FA Cup winners in 2009, Chelsea (aka the Blues) is owned by one of Russia’s richest men and has been forged in recent years into a formidable and ruthless footballing machine. | Stamford Bridge, Fulham Rd., | Fulham | SW6 1HS | 0871/984–1905 | www.chelseafc.com | Fulham Broadway.
Tottenham Hotspur (aka Spurs)—bitter North London rivals of Arsenal—has underperformed for many years but there are strong hints of a revival with a bevy of England national team regulars from Peter Crouch to Jermaine Defoe and Aaron Lennon. | White Hart La.,748 High Rd., | London | N17 0AP | 0844/499–5000 | www.tottenhamhotspur.com | National Rail: White Hart La.
West Ham, despite the name, is the team of the East End. After a long period of failing to match their past success, the Hammers have created a more consistent team, but one unlikely to claim too many trophies. | Boleyn Ground, Green St., Upton Park | E13 9AZ | 0871/222–2700 | www.whufc.com | Upton Park.
CRICKET
At its best, cricket can be a slow-build of smoldering tension and excitement. At its worst, though, it can be unbearably tedious, as five-day games crawl toward a draw, or as the English weather interferes and rain stops play.
Lord’s has been hallowed cricketing turf since 1811. Tickets are hard to come by: obtain an application form and enter the ballot (lottery) to purchase tickets. Forms are sent out in early December or you can apply online. Test Match tickets cost between £25 and £95. County matches (Middlesex plays here) can usually be seen by standing in line on match day. | St. John’s Wood Rd., St. John’s Wood | NW8 8QN | 020/7432–1000 | www.lords.org | St. John’s Wood.
HORSE RACING
The Queen attends Royal Ascot (Grand Stand, Ascot, Berkshire | SL5 7JX | 0870/727–1234 | www.ascot.co.uk) in mid-June, driving from Windsor in an open carriage for a procession before the plebs. Grandstand tickets, which go on sale in November, cost £49–£69, although some tickets can usually be bought on the day of the race (generally on Tuesday or Wednesday) for £16. The real spectacle is the crowd itself, and those who arrive dressed inappropriately (jeans, shorts, sneakers) will be turned away from their grandstand seats.
Derby Day (The Grandstand, Epsom Downs, | Surrey | KT18 5LQ | 0844/579–3004 | www.epsomderby.co.uk), usually held on the first Saturday in June, is the second-biggest social event of the racing calendar. It’s also one of the world’s greatest horse races, first run in 1780. Tickets are between £20 and £100.
TENNIS
The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships are famous for the green grass of Centre Court and an old-fashioned insistence on players wearing white.
Rain, a perennial hazard even in the last-week-of-June-first-week-of-July timing, has been banished on Centre Court by the addition of a retractable roof.
Whether you can get grandstand tickets is literally down to the luck of the draw, because there’s a ballot system (lottery) for advance purchase. For more information, see their Web site.
You can also buy entry to roam matches on the outside courts, where even the top-seeded players compete early.
Get to Southfields or Wimbledon Tube station as early as possible and get in line.
Five hundred show court tickets are also sold, but these usually go to those prepared to stand in line all night. | Ticket Office, All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Box 98, Church Rd., Wimbledon | SW19 5AE | 020/8944–1066 | www.wimbledon.org.
RUNNING
The Virgin London Marathon (020/7620–4117 | www.london-marathon.co.uk) starts at 9:30 am on a Sunday in April, with more than 35,000 athletes running from Blackheath or Greenwich to the Mall.
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