Australia are playing England in an Ashes Test series this summer. The start of the series was delayed because of the ICC World Cup.
I have decided to try and see at least one day of all of the Test Matches this summer.
Catching the Ferry to Hull
On the 31st of July, I caught the ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Hull. Travelling by overnight ferry is such a pleasant way to travel.
As you wait to board the ferry, cyclists and motorcyclists are put in the same queue. This is always an interesting experience as the riders from both ‘camps’ engage in conversations about their completed, or planned, travels.
On this occasion I met an old couple on a Triumph Trophy. When I say ‘old’, I reckon they were well into their 70’s. The bloke told me that he had “picked-up the 2002 Triumph last year with only 10K miles on the clock”. Since them he and “the missus have put on another 10K”. They had just been on a tour through northern Germany, including time in Berlin.
I was great to see this classic bike and ‘classic’ riders.
Ride past windmills
The bike path from the ferry terminal into Hull took me a long an old railway line. There is an information board about the railway line. It was built to carry coal trains to the port. The path went past a factory where windmills for electricity generation are manufactured. This is physical evidence of the change in power generation in the UK.
First News of the Cricket
As I boarded to train heading to Leeds, I came across a fellow cyclist wearing an England ‘one day’ cricket shirt. He told me that Australia had “won the toss and had decided to bat”. I thought that was a good toss to win.
As we approached Leeds the England supporter gave me an update on the score. Australia was 2 down for 17. Both openers were out. He also told me that the England bowler Anderson was injured.
Onto Haworth
From Leeds I caught the train to Keithley and rode up to Haworth where I checked into the Youth Hostel.
I walked from the hostel up to old village of Haworth famous for it High Street and being the home of the Bronte sisters.
There are lots of pubs in Haworth, however, none of them had televisions showing the cricket. I guess this is to be expected given it a ‘literary’ place. However, finding pubs with Sky Sports is not easy. I have been told that Sky charges extraordinary amount for the TV licences in pub, GBP 15K per month. This is simply ridiculous. Murdoch has bought the exclusive rights for all cricket in the UK, including international matches.
Listening to TMS
I found a nice pub to eat a very late lunch/early dinner. I tuned into the BBC Test Match Special (TMS). They have a really good commentary team led by Jonathon Agnew.
At one-point Australia were 8 wickets down for 122. Fortunately, Steve Smith was not out in first Test Match since his ban for the ‘ball tampering’ incident in South Africa.
Smith took control. He batted superbly, scoring freely despite a very defensive field. Peter Siddle provided excellent support.
Australia ended up posting a ‘defendable’ 284 for the first innings.
Walk through the Moors
The next day a young cousin invited me to go for a walk on the Moors from Keithley to Ilkley. He was visiting Ilkley from Austria with his family. His grandfather was my Uncle Stan. A number of readers of this post will remember Uncle Stan as the coach of the Turner under 11A’s Junior Cricket team.
The walk was ‘cricket free’. We agreed that we would not check the score and will wait to watch the ‘highlights’ on the TV in the evening.
It was a great walk with excellent conversations.
Fish and Chips and Highlights
The walk finished at my cousin’s house in Ilkley. We ate some excellent Fish and Chip with ‘mushy’ peas.
We then settle down to watch the highlights of the day’s play. There were an awful lot of advisements.
The feature of the day was a maiden Test century by the England opener Rory Burns. However, Australia bowled pretty well and Peter Siddle got out Joe Root with a great ‘caught and bowled’ for 57.
Getting to Birmingham
I had booked my train from Leeds to Birmingham well in advance. You need to do this to avoid simply absurd fares. It is also necessary to secure a ‘space’ for a bicycle.
When I arrived at Leeds Station, the place was ‘somewhat chaotic’ to say the least. The announcements were coming quick and fast and they were not good.
Apparently at least three things had gone wrong. There had been a ‘flash flood’. A train had pulled down some wires and there had been some ‘wildcat’ industrial action. A large number of trains had been cancelled and most were delayed.
The ‘very calm’ lady on the information desk told me to “forget about my booked train and take the next train to Sheffield and try to transfer to Birmingham form there”.
I boarded a ‘Northern’ train bound for Nottingham via Sheffield. It was packed. Unfortunately, it didn’t move. I had broken down. This is not unusual for Northern trains. They breakdown on regular basis. I have experienced this before trying to travel from Newcastle to Morphet back in June.
The railway staff told us to move to another platform where we boarded another train that was even more crowded.
Staying in Nottingham???????
This train finally moved off.
Despite the crowded conditions, the passengers all seemed to be in good humour. I found myself standing next to a couple from New Zealand who told me that they were heading to Nottingham where they were going to do a “house sit”.
A woman nearby heard the conversation and joined in. She said in broad Yorkshire accent:
“You’re going to Nottingham for a holiday?”. Her tone was almost the definition incredulity.
She went on, “have you been to Nottingham?”.
Surrounding passengers roared with laughter.
Finally in Birmingham
I had a short wait in Sheffield before catching the train across to Birmingham.
I had booked a room on the one of the student accommodation places servicing Aston University.
It was a bugger of a place to find. Google seemingly had no idea how to get there. Birmingham has motorways running through the middle of it. It is not a pedestrian friendly place at all. I finally found the place and checked in.
At Edgbaston for the First Time
I took the bus out to Edgbaston Cricket Ground. The plan was to get a ticket from someone leaving the ground after Tea. I also needed to buy a ticket for the next day.
By this time Australia bowled England out for 374. It meant that England had a handy lead. Nathan Lyon had bowled his ‘bunny’, Moeen Ali out for a duck, however Woakes and Broad scored some useful ‘tailenders’ runs.
I bought my ticket for the next day. At GBP 105 it wasn’t cheap.
I then headed to the security gates to see if I could get a ticket for someone leaving the ground. One of the security guards offered to help.
As we chatted a couple came passed. The woman was heavily pregnant. I suspect she had enough of sitting on hard seats. They gave me a ticket for a seat in the Raglan Stand.
I entered the ground. This was to be my first time at Edgbaston.
By this time Australia had already lost both openers cheapy again. d Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith were batting.
The atmosphere in the ground was great. The ‘Barmy Army’ were in the stand opposite where I was sitting. They were in good voice.
Decided to buy myself a beer. The ground has a really good system. When you buy your first beer you are charged 1GBP for a ‘recyclable’ cup. When you go back for a second beer, you hand on over the cup and they give a refresh one. At the end of the day. You take the cup back to the counter and they refund the pound to your credit card. They do not accept cash.
Usman Khawaja was looking very good until he was out playing a careless shot. There was a little bit of drama when Smith was hit on the head by short ball from Broad. This really got the Barmy Army excited, but it didn’t seem to fuss Smith.
Smith and Travis Head were not out at Stumps.
Shortly after play stopped, there was terrific downpour of rain. I got to see the ground staff in action with their ‘covers’. They have a thing which is like a ‘hovercraft’. It has a motor, or motors, that blow air downwards like a hovercraft as it is pushed along and positioned over the pitch.
It has a metal roof that covers the pitch and the immediate surrounds. It also has plastic covers that are pulled out from the side to cover the rest of the square. The whole ‘covering’ process is completed in minutes by very few blokes.
The 4th day
I returned to the ground the next day with high expectations of seeing a great day’s play.
My seat was high in the Western Stand. It turned out to quite a good place to view the action.
Smith and Head steadily went about building the score. They didn’t seem to be having any problems with England attack. Curiously Root didn’t bowl Woakes at all in the first session. Moeen Ali was bowling poorly.
When Head was dismissed, he was replaced by Mathew Wade, another left hander.
The feature of the day was of course Smith’s innings. He is simply extraordinary. There a no big flashy shots in the air, in fact he rarely seems to hit the ball that hard. He simply goes about scoring runs. He is particularly good at rotating the strike. This particularly useful when playing with a left hander.
I was sitting between two families. One was a father with two boys and friend. The other was mother and father with two boys. Both the fathers were extremely knowledgeable about the game. They were pointing out features of Smith’s batting and Root’s attempts to counter him. It didn’t matter where Root placed his field, Smith always found a way to beat it and score.
I had quite a long chat with the mother. She is great cricket fan and has been to grounds all around the worlds including Australia, India, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. Her and her husband are going to at least one day of all the Tests this summer and will be taking the boys as well. They must spend a fortune on cricket.
Both Wade got well deserved centuries. Paine made a useful contribution and Patterson made a quick fire 47 before Australia declared.
The England openers survived a testing few overs before stumps.
The 5th Day
I decided to stay in Birmingham to watch the last day.
By the time that I got to the ground England was already in trouble. However, I was more that willing to pay the GBP 25 to watch Australia win.
As I walked into the ground, Root was dismissed. It was only going to a matter of time before it was all over.
A couple of Australian supporters were sitting in front of me. Written of the back of their shirts was the following:
Aussies, We love our, Sun, Surf and Sand (paper).
Very funny.
In the afternoon session there was a procession of England dismissals. Lyon was bowling well, and supported by aggressive field placings. He took Moeen Ali’s yet again on his way to a ‘6 for’. Cummings took 4.
In the end Australia won convincingly.
Flickr Photos
Howarth
Test Match
Scoreboards
https://www.cricbuzz.com/live-cricket-scorecard/20715/eng-vs-aus-1st-test-the-ashes-2019
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