How Bert Lock worked a miracle in the winter of 1945-46, and made the club's 'best signing from Kent'

Winter at the Kia Oval. There’s a steady hum about the place. No cricket for a while but the groundstaff are out and about checking their post-season work.

There are no massive cranes hanging over the ground this winter, unlike 12 months previously when the new dressing rooms and floodlights were under construction.

People going to-and-fro for meetings and school pupils using the extensive spaces under the JM Finn Stand ensure a hustle and bustle pervades the ground. There are few days in the calendar when nothing is happening at the ground and the gates stay locked. Go back 80 years and it was all very different.