Tickets still available for Lord's Test

Demand for tickets for this Ashes series has been unprecedented, but according to MCC, around 150 seats per day are likely to be available on each morning of the Lord's Test.

The opportunity for this last-ditch entry to the ground has arisen after an MCC enquiry into the abuse of privileges by a small proportion of their members, who had exploited their rights to extra seats by passing them on via ticket agencies and internet auctions.

Most of these tickets have now been recovered, and in each case the original purchasers have now been banned, by MCC, from buying tickets to future major matches at Lord's.

Several additional cases remain under investigation, according to MCC, who continue to buy Ashes tickets from agencies, touts and auction sites so that the original purchasers can be identified and have the appropriate action taken against them. In these cases, too, the recovered tickets will be put back on public sale.

Members of the public will also be able to buy the tickets which have been returned to MCC by purchasers who are now unable - for family, professional or other reasons - to attend the Test. (Any additional purchasers who wish to return their tickets should contact the MCC Ticket Office, on 020 7432 1000, as soon as possible; refunds will be paid.)

From Thursday, all returned and recovered tickets will be sold daily - on a first-come, first-served basis - from the North Gate Ticket Sales Points, off Wellington Place. The tickets will go on sale at 9 o'clock on the morning concerned; no tickets will be available for a future day's play; and customers may buy only one ticket each.

Prospective match-goers should note that all tickets for matches at Lord's are sold and distributed only by MCC. It should also be noted that any tickets which have been re-sold for above their face value - in contravention of MCC's Terms & Conditions of Sale - are liable to be invalidated and re-sold to the public.