The Ashes

I took a day off work today to go to the 3rd day of the 5th test at the SCG with Nicci and her two friends Gary and Adrian. I woke up to rain and cloud and I thought I'd spend the day watching England get slaughtered in the drizzle, but as it happens about 9:30am when we had arrived at the SCG and found our seats the sun came out and we had a wonderfully hot and sunny day (while still watching England get slaughtered though).

The Member's Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Play started slightly late at 10:15 and an early wicket got the crowd going. The Barmy Army weren't far away and were a bit quiet in the morning session but livened up in the afternoon with their repertoire of "God Save Your Queen" and after Flintoff's dismissal a great rendition of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer"!

The Barmy Army kept the crowed entertained

Nicci and I applied her bizarre coconut smelling spray on sunscreen about a zillion time as the sun was so blazing hot and in the Concourse where we were sitting we got no shade at all until about 6pm! I think this was probably the only event I have been to where the queue for the men's toilet was longer than the women's.

The crowd must have been about 70% - 30% in favour of the English who were absolutely everywhere, god knows how many are in Sydney at the moment for The Ashes. We didn't see much trouble, only a few people got kicked out and that is probably due to the ground not serving full strength beer, only light beer.

England's 2nd Innings

Overall, England played so badly it wasn't funny. Not that I know much about cricket but when it came to their second innings they all looked scared shitless! Especially after Andrew Strauss took a Brett Lee screamer right on the head that practically knocked him out!

All in all, The Ashes were lost long ago and this display showed me exactly why.