From cricket to football: Why Nottingham is world class for sport

It still sends shivers down the spines of veteran Forest fans to hear nearly 30,000 people singing, as one, the famous words “Oh mist rolling in from the Trent..” at the start of every home game.

The song - an adaptation of Paul McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre” - rouses the City Ground just as the kick-off whistle is blown, and again at the start of the second half.

But were the mist to be rolling in from the Trent, it wouldn’t only be the City Ground that would be shrouded in a dreamy haze. Because that spot, by the banks of the famous river, is a very special space for sports fans everywhere, and for supporters of three clubs in particular.

In what must be a unique geographical happening, perhaps anywhere in the world, a tiny stretch of land around the Trent is the location of three first-class sporting stadiums: Meadow Lane, the City Ground, and Trent Bridge, home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.

Millions of test cricket fans from all over the world have visited the beautiful and eclectic grounds over the years. Henry Blowfeld, the eccentric voice of test cricket, on his final, emotional series, said: "Trent Bridge is the most wonderful ground in the world.” Bathing in the joy of a sunny afternoon watching world-class cricket, the Trent lazing past just out of view, it’s hard not to agree with ‘Blowers’ there.

International test matches are always watched from above by the classic ‘blimp’ camera, suspended hundreds of feet above the ground. And from there, on a sunny summer’s day, you can truly understand how spectacular this setting is.

Panning out from the green turf of Trent Bridge, the camera takes in first the handsome stands that surround it, glistening in the sunshine, then the whole ground, and then, from even further above, first the City Ground, and then Meadow Lane.

This sport-lovers hallowed ground is intersected magically by the Trent, which on good days is teeming with river life - rowers, walkers, cyclists and pleasure-boat passengers.

With a distance of just 270 metres, and the river, between them, Meadow Lane and the City Ground are the two closest football grounds in England, and the second closest in the UK. (And in an eccentric twist, the home of Notts County is in fact, going by council boundaries, in Nottingham City, while the City Ground is outside the city - and therefore in Nottinghamshire County).

Meadow Lane is renowned among football lovers - and pub quiz buffs - because it is home to the world’s oldest professional football club. And while Notts County didn’t move to the club’s present location until 1910, it is still an important sightseeing stop for connoisseurs of the beautiful game.

If the test match blimp were to do a really wide pan around, it would also take in the little matter of the National Water Sports Centre within Holme Pierrepont Country Park, described as “the training ground for many of the world’s top freestyle kayakers”.

And if that wasn’t enough sports trivia for one location, there is also the Nottingham Racecourse and Nottingham Greyhound Stadium a few minutes walk from Holme Pierrepont, at Colwick.