• I AM not a player or follower of cricket, but I do know that in the late 18th century Thomas Lord (1755-1832), famously associated with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Lord’s Cricket Ground, was groundsman at White Conduit House in Barnsbury, Islington.

There he organised the game, before moving on ultimately to St John’s Wood.

Islington can thus claim to have been the birthplace of cricket as a national sport. But the borough currently has only one public pitch, that at Wray Crescent, which is small and with an inadequate and dilapidated pavilion, (They should have asked us: Howzat? June 18).

Because cricket is played there, the pitch is largely natural grass and all the other activities listed by Viv Whittingham (Why give cricket priority over our need for space? June 19) can also be enjoyed and it is pleasant to look at for all.

Let football in, as suggested, and it will soon be astroturf.

JAMES DUNNETT, N1