A bizarre alliance at Lord's

What on earth would members think at the venerable home of cricket? 

Mick Jagger singing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" blares out from the loudspeakers at Lord's. The crowd, for goodness' sake, are doing the disco moves to Village People's YMCA. Next up the Bee Gees belt out "Night Fever". Whatever next?

And for the first time in the long and illustrious history of Lord's, the immortal words, "Come on people, let's hear it for Ukraine," ring out across the historic ground.

Bat and ball have met bow and arrow in the most unlikely of alliances - and it really works, with the sun beating down on stands that have been erected on the most famous pitch in cricket.

Archery has come to the Olympics for the 2012 London Games with all the razzmatazz of an American football game. All that is missing are the cheerleaders.

In fact, the atmosphere is more like the Hollywood hoopla of the beach volleyball tournament across town at another equally venerable British institution, Horse Guards Parade.

Archery is an esoteric mind game where concentration is everything. But they certainly do not get to shoot in a hushed silence at Lord's.

Announcer George Tekmitchov is forever whipping up the crowd. "Applause" flashes up on the big screen after each bull's eye. All this history has sent the archery specialist into a frenzy of excitement at his microphone.

"This has to be the biggest pressure cooker in sport," he tells fans, many of them bemused Brits who are probably taking their first look at archery. Their knowledge may not stretch much further than that old Robin Hood movie they once saw.