God Save the King

Laura Wright sings God Save the King before start of play on day 3. Photo by Ashley Western/Colorsport/Shutterstock/BackpagePix (13379853u)
Cricket – 2022 LV=Insurance International Series – Third Test – England vs South Africa – The Kia Oval – Saturday 10th September 2022.

‘God Save the King’: The Oval witnesses first rendition in 70 years

The Oval witnessed the first official rendition of God Save the King at a sporting event following the passing of Queen Elizabeth.

God Save the King

Laura Wright sings God Save the King before start of play on day 3. Photo by Ashley Western/Colorsport/Shutterstock/BackpagePix (13379853u)
Cricket – 2022 LV=Insurance International Series – Third Test – England vs South Africa – The Kia Oval – Saturday 10th September 2022.

In a moment that marked both the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension to the thone of King Charles III, the Third Test between South Africa and England restarted with a stirring rendition of ‘God Save the King’.

The Test lost a day of play after Friday’s action was called off as Great Britain mourned the loss of its head of state.

Charles was being formally sworn in as the action got underway at the Oval.

Camilla God Save the King
King Charles’ wife Camilla becomes Queen Consort. Image via AFP.

Watch: God Save the King

England skipper Ben Stokes led calls for the Test to resume as a tribute to Her Majesty.

“It’s obviously been a sad couple of days not only for us but the whole nation and the world as well,” Stokes told BBC Test Match Special before play started.

“It’s great to be stood here knowing that we’re going to be playing this game, not just for us but in memory of the Queen so it’s a very special occasion for us.

“We were still waiting for confirmation of what was going to happen this week so the lads were just sitting around waiting for that yesterday. Once we heard the news it was good to hear from our point of view. There wasn’t much going on for us yesterday to be honest.

“If we were to do the toss again then we wouldn’t change what we’d do. In a shortened game bowling first gives us more of an opportunity to win the game, but the thing we’re going to do this week is to set the game up to be a result either way.

“That’s what people want to see and that’s the way we’ve been playing our cricket all summer. We don’t play to try and draw the game, we try to win it. Anything we can do to create a result in this game is what we’ll try to do.”