Let battle commence! [Ashes 2017-18 thread]
 

I didn't really want to expand on the title of this thread, but decided in the end that I should, just so that everyone who is interested gets the chance to join in.

We are super-excited here, even though we'll have to stay up til midnight to watch the start of the action. How long I'll last after that remains to be seen - if the match follows the same pattern as 4 years ago, I may take to my bed sooner rather than later. At least our humiliation will be private, unlike last time when we had the "pleasure" of watching the horror unfold live at the Gabba surrounded by 80,000 Aussies. But as ever, hope springs eternal, as I'm sure it does in Aussie hearts too.

So no hawking, spitting or sledging but otherwise, let battle commence!

<<we had the "pleasure" of watching the horror unfold live at the Gabba surrounded by 80,000 Aussies>>

It must have been a good day, you were seeing double ;)

Boxing day at the MCG with 100,000 must be an incredible yet nerve wracking experience for the opening batsmen

I normally have tickets for Adelaide (great ground and surrounding pubs), Perth and Sydney but this year the usual suspects that I travel with can't be bothered so I'll just watch on tv.

It must have been a good day, you were seeing double>>

Probably, the Tassies sitting next to us insisted on buying us cocktails all day; mind you they kept showing us pics of various members of their family posing with Rickie Ponting so we needed to have a drink to cope with all that, let alone what was happening on the pitch.

The size of the Aussie grounds is very impressive and as you say it must be very intimidating. Shame that you aren't going to be seeing it in the flesh this year; I hope you enjoy it as much as you have before.

The radio commentary build up has just started with a poem by Robert Louis Stephenson being interspersed with Ashes highlights. So many evocative voices followed by the familiar music that precedes all TMS broadcasts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xXbTaQlKI

I was just thinking about you, Annhig!

Sitting on my deck with a “cuppa” just before 11am, it’s Summer in Sydney! Cricket’s on the radio, cicadas singing in the background. “First contact of the series of bat to ball ...”

Good luck - but not tooooo much of it;)

We Aussies haven’t got a hope. Worst Australian team ever, and I don’t like Smith as Captain. I think the Brits have nothing to worry about as they will win easily.

I think you're being a little pessimistic, cheska - I thought that it was just about honours even today. Shame that Vince managed to get himself run out, as I think that he was nailed on for a 100, but great throw by Lyons.

Funny that it's the newbies for England that have done so well, and Cook and Root not so much.

What think you now, Bokhara?

Sitting on my deck with a “cuppa” just before 11am, it’s Summer in Sydney! Cricket’s on the radio, cicadas singing in the background. “First contact of the series of bat to ball ...”
*****
That sounds wonderful, Bokhara!

Owzat.....Lillee, caught Willey, bowled Dilley.

Just heard the tribute to Jim Maxwell on ABC - it's his 40th year and big comeback after his stroke. Kerry O'Keeffe ( our family fav ), Sir Geoffrey and Aggers were amongst them.

I'm laying on the couch with the cooling on watching Aus 4 /167 and Root getting ready to bowl . Lots of praise for Joe Roots captaincy from the all white male commentators on the tv. Wow I just heard a positive comment about Marsh !!!!

Lovely to hear and see the interviews and presentations with/to the Other Ashes winners - well done women .

Owzat.....Lillee, caught Willey, bowled Dilley.>>

or even better the apocryphal "the batsman's Holding the bowler's Willey".

Said not to be true but who cares?

Northie - we had a lot of coverage here of the women's Ashes with lots of female voices, but as you say, they now seem to have disappeared. Jim Maxwell is a big favourite here too - he seems to have been replaced as the resident Aussie on TMS by Glenn McGrath who was a great bowler but less good commentator/ pundit IMHO. Still I will always have a soft spot for him ever since he single handedly won the Ashes for England in 2005 by rolling his foot on that cricket ball before the start of the 2nd test. I'm convinced that had he been fit, Australia would have won hands down and we would have been spared the sight of a very drunk Freddie Flintoff sitting on top of the open top bus in the victory parade around London. How history is changed by such small things.

As for the match we seem to have let you off the hook, rather - let's hope Jimmy et al can do some damage in the morning.

As Jim only did one test last season because of his stroke he may have been replaced by Glenn. He's back full time this year though .

He's back full time this year though .>>

Sadly not with us he isn't, though I'm very pleased to hear that he has made a full recovery. I don't know what format Aussie radio adopts but the TMS routine is that there are three commentators per match, who each do a 20 minuted slot. They do the "ball by ball" commentary. Alongside them is a "pundit" and they do 30 minutes slots I think, so that there is an overlapping of a variety of voices. Jim has done both the ball by ball and pundit roles in the past but so far as this test is concerned, he doesn't seem to be doing either, and Glenn McGrath is supplying the Aussie voice. I should add that there is also a scorer who is there all day [I suppose he gets lunch and tea off] who does all the stats.

So how do they organise the Aussie radio broadcasts?

Tuning in here...

Northie -

"cricket on the radio" is where you should be. One of the rotating commentators is Alison someone, an Englishwoman. She does quite well. One advantage of the radio is that it's slightly ahead of the tv broadcast, so, if something happens, you have time to get in front of the tv to see it, without the rabbiting on of the tv commentators.

Good to hear Kim Maxwell back, but I haven;t heard, so far, from Glenn McGrath. (and I agree with Ann's assessment of his injury contributing greatly to our loss). I wish Kerry O'Keefe would come back to serious radio, not that commercial stunt.

That would be Alison Mitchell, Margo, who along with Eleanor Oldroyd has managed to break through into Sports commentating in the UK. They have both come through the conventional sports commentator route [Alison even gets let loose on the football occasionally] whereas some of the others have moved from playing cricket to commentating on it - Lottie Edwards, the wonderfully named Ebony-Jewel Cora-Lee Camellia Rosamond Rainford-Brent, and Isa Gupta all played for England and are allowed out on women's and non-test matches, though not yet on the test matches.

As for the wittering of the TV commentators, there has been a minor revolution here as Sky has lost the contract [thank goodness] to BT sport. Sky's sole criterion for election appeared to be that the chap in Q had been England cricket captain; this led to the bizarre notion that Nassar Hussein and Ian Botham would make good commentators. Our remedy for this is to turn the TV sound off and listen to TMS however there is a problem with digital radio as it's not sychonised with the TV action. We solved this problem by buying a radio that has a pause function which gives us endless entertainment trying to get the sound and the picture to match up.

BTW I remember hearing a lot about Kerry O'Keefe when we were in Oz 4 years ago but when I listened, I couldn't see why he was so popular. What was I missing?

I hope that you have forgiven me for THAT rugby match - I see that you take on Scotland tomorrow which may be an unexpectedly challenging fixture, given the resurgence on Scottish rugby - they gave NZ a real fright last week. Let's hope that the ref is on your side this week, shall we?

Perfect day here today. 31 degrees no wind and we will have a bbq tonight. I love listening to Jim Maxwells commentary as he seems to be very fair. Th TV commentary drives me insane. Shane Warne etc. although Bill Lawry is the all time favourite. At 80 years of age he can still entertain.

Adelaide Oval is my favourite ground to watch cricket although it is always hot. But that’s not a problem as you just pop out the back for a nice cold glass of wine. I should declare it is my hometown, even though I don’t live there anymore.

What with a lot of our politicians not knowing their citizenship and the continued news on a certain President I feel Australia really needs cheering up. I’m not sure the Aussie team will do this for us. Roll on Aust Open Tennis. Ah summer in Australia. Perfect. So much fabulous sport where I can escape reality.

Yes - Alison Mitchell - I listened when she was introduced today. There's been a call to have her banned! Just as her shift started, she called two Australian wickets in quick succession. Obviously her fault!

(and apologies to Jim Maxwell, who I unfortunately renamed Kim above!)

The radio process here is much the same as TMS. We have two English commentators, Alison M and Jonathan Agnew - and 2 Australians, Jim M and Gerard Whately currently. The TV set up is similar to UK, a bevy of former Australian captains and other well known former players, and the odd other commentator (e.g the odd Shane Warne) and an occasional England player - I've seen Michael Vaughan about.

Another century for Steve Smith - as the rest of the team put up some defence around him.

Smith - slow but steady - his slowest ever .
I really enjoy Alison Mitchell - she comes here lots in the summer - she's often on an ABC tv sports show The Outsiders . She is the first woman to call men's cricket ball by ball on ABC radio grandstand . Gerard Whatley is my fav sport commentator - he is prolific . Drew Morphett died during the year so is sadly missed .

My family all love Kerry - his giggle, his larrikiness (a word !)

We beat Fiji - oh oh that's the other rugby with all the Melbourne players in it !!

So every time I bag Smith he makes 100. northie I too liked Drew I don’t mind Jonathan Agnew. I heard him Interviewed before the Ashes started and he was interesting.

Another century for Steve Smith - as the rest of the team put up some defence around him.>>

He was getting a lot of kudos on TMS for the slow and steady way he went about his business - Boyks was particularly impressed. That was the main talking point, plus Cummings valiant 50+ and why oh why we didn't bowl Jimmy and Broady after lunch. After play closed they were trying to get an answer to that but no-one was really saying.

Interesting that Alison is doing ball-by-ball on Aussie radio - there's no sign of her at all on TMS, though she is doing reporting on the cricket for the main sports station, Radio 5. Please can you send Jim over to commentate for us - I really enjoy listening to him.

Interesting that you've got Shane on TV - I can't stand him either but even he is better than most of the rest of them that Sky employs.

Congrats on beating Fiji - we're just watching to a recording of the England v Tonga match - no spoilers please!

I don't miss Sky's commentary tean - Ian Botham has never been known to tell a story that doesn't show how wonderful he is. Michael Vaughn has been accused in some quarters of only ever pushing players that are signed up to an agency in which he alledgedly has a financial interest. Michael holding is the best of the bunch.

I'm prepared to give Shane some leeway - not only is he the greatest spin bowler ever (because I discount the leading wicket taker as a "chucker"), but while he was at Hampshire, he never left the ground before he had signed autographs for any waiting child - even if there were hundreds.


I very much missed Tony Crozier this summer when the Windes were here. The first woman commentator on TMS was the very talented Donna Symmonds who went on to practice law.

willit - thank you for reminding me of Donna Symmonds' name - I was trying to remember it earlier. And I too miss Tony Cozier [not Crozier I think] but his replacement this summer, Fazeer Mohammed, was a hoot - did you hear him doing the calypso in between his ball-by-ball commentary? Sheer genius.

Interesting about Shane; I don't judge him as a human being so much as a commentator at which he is better than Botham [a plank of wood would sadly be better than Beefy] but far inferior to Michael Holding - his is another voice to which I could listen all day. Bumble is weird but funny too; I can just about tolerate Sky so long as he or Holding are on duty at the time.

As for Vaughan, I know he has his detractors but he is interesting to listen to, which in the end is [for me] what it's all about.

Well guess I have to eat my words. I gave away my ticket for the Boxing Day test. Lunch with my sisters ( on our own) was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Oh well still a lot of cricket to be played.

Watching the cricket today on tv and listening to Ian Healy and Michael Slater was enough to do my head in.
Ann hope you catch up on some sleep.

Watching the cricket today on tv and listening to Ian Healy and Michael Slater was enough to do my head in. >>

i'm not surprised, cheska. But can't you put the radio on and listen to that while you watch with the sound turned off? According to TMS, there are three stations you can listen to - a local station, plus the one that Glenn McGrath is on [begins with a G I think] plus ABC. Of course if you could get TMS that would be your best option, but you probably can't do that.

and yes I did get catch up on my sleep - I made myself stay up late then went to bed and listened to the first hour, which convinced me we were going to lose, then slept right through. You see, it's the hope that gets you. Once I knew we'd lost I could sleep quite soundly.

Ann if I could politely explain why I couldn’t get the radio to work I would. Needless to say that once it was explained to me how to get it turned on without having a honours degree in electrical engineering the cricket was over.

However the positive thing was I got all of our accommodation booked for Spain and England for our trip April- June next year.

well you'll have the radio for the next test, won't you? so it's not all bad - and you won the match!

Where in England and Spain are you going?

The cricket is on ABC Grandstand which is digital .
Glenn McGrath is on Macquarie radio - the stations vary from match to match .
I see Stokes is having talks with Canterbury in NZ !
Will the selectors put Maxwell in ( he made 247 in a shield match ) or the talk they won't disturb a winning side?

Ah, we can rely on you, Northie for the Ashes gossip. yes, Ben Stokes has received ECB permission to play some cricket while Somerset and Avon plod make their minds up about whether to charge him or not. [is one of them a closet Aussie supporter I wonder, hanging out the decision making for as long as possible in order to disadvantage the Poms?]

Don't know about Maxwell - certainly the English tendency over recent years has been not to disturb a winning side apart from where someone is "injured".

The good news for us is that because the Adelaide match is a day/nighter, we will be able to "enjoy" the last few hours of play every morning. That may also turn out to be the bad news of course, but we haven't entirely given up hope quite yet.

The Adelaide test will be fantastic to watch as it is a beautiful oval. So the radio will be on and the tv although with the sound down. Not sure what the forecast is for Adelaide but the east coast of Australia is tipped to have possible foods this week. Oh yea more rain. We have had so much rain and thunderstorms where I live I am over it. I don’t even live in the tropics.
Adelaide was 39c today so I hope that holds up for the weekend.

Haven’t quite finalised the itinerary for England and I am hoping that Prince Harry marries anytime after the 22nd of May because that is when we arrive. However, my DH is not so excited about the Royal Wedding.

Places to visit are Oxford Chester Harrogate Lincoln and Windermere. Then end in London so I can visit Westminster Cathedral. We visited England in 2013 and I loved it. I just love that there is not a gum tree to be seen.

We will focus on Northern Spain. Will arrive in San Sebastián from Paris. We are going to be in Villers Bretonneux for Anzac Day. That is going to be something special.

May the best team win.

Not sure what the forecast is for Adelaide but the east coast of Australia is tipped to have possible foods this week. Oh yea more rain. We have had so much rain and thunderstorms where I live I am over it. I don’t even live in the tropics.
Adelaide was 39c today so I hope that holds up for the weekend. >>

Your weather is definitely very mixed at the moment though I'm sure that the England team doesn't hope for 39C at the weekend!

<< We visited England in 2013 and I loved it. I just love that there is not a gum tree to be seen. >>

you haven't been to Cornwall then! plenty of gum trees here. But probably too far for you to add into your mix of places, which looks good - rest of trip as well. I had to google Villers Bretonneux:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viller...ional_Memorial

and yes, may the best team win.

cheska15 - we went To Villers Bretonneux 2 years ago just after Anzac Day - see my trip report under my name - also Amiens , and Fromelles - all very moving for Ausyralians .

Roll on Adelaide .

I didn't know Ben Stokes was born in NZ - the other day ABC said it was the first team with all English born players since 2002 - love all the usual,trivia - lucky Ben wasn't in the team or they wouldñt have had that piece of gossip .

northie, I didn't know that either. The majority of players being English born IS something of a novelty - I remember after one series v SA, some wag quipped that our South Africans [including Strauss, Trott and Petersen] were better than their South Africans.

DS has decided to put his alarm on for the end of "tea" [or whatever they are going to call the second interval] so that he can watch the last session of play which should start at about 7am GMT - who knows I might join him [at least on the first day!]

Hopefully there will be no rain delay . South eastern Australia has been having severe storm warnings since Thursday night - expect equal to our whole summer rainfall in the next 3 days .

northie. Really enjoyed your trip report. We are very excited about visiting VB for that day. Sadly we booked to late to get accommodation so it will be a long day from Paris. We don’t mind though.

Rain Rain go away. We have had enough as it is playing havoc with the roses, and the rest of my sort of English garden. Even the native plants have had enough.

What should Australia do if they win the toss. Outfield will be slow I think.

What should Australia do if they win the toss? >>

Bat. Or if in doubt, bat. [per WG Grace and he knew a thing or two].

If you want some more up to date advice, this is what Mike Brierley has to say:

http://www.pitchvision.com/reading-t...win-the-toss#/

So Root took Brierleys advice !!!! Maybe he thought he should use reason 3 ��.

cheska - glad you liked my report - if you get time visit the Newfoundland site at Hamel - the young Canadian guides are great . I have the name of a guide who can pick you up at the station and drive you to VB .

The sledging talk is ridiculous - certainly put Smith off his game . I laughed at the article by Anderson on Aussie sledging - they say he's the worst of the lot .

Did your son get up early to watch annhig?

Did your son get up early to watch annhig?>>

no, but I had the radio on most of the night. [ok, call me a masochist!]

Root's decision not to bat IMO shows his inexperience - if he was going to do that he should have made sure that his bowlers were up to the job, which clearly they weren't, apart from the rookie Overton.

As for sledging, I'm not sure who's the worst TBH - the aussies clearly got under Bairstow's skin in the last test, making a fuss about something they hadn't mentioned for a whole month, and there was something going on in the first innings of this test with Smith, which I think was the afters of that press conference, but I don't think he can blame anyone but himself for getting out in the 2nd innings - finally we have started to bowl well. Why it's taken so long for them to find the right length and a bit of zip I have no idea.

And why didn't Smith make us follow on? Madness, particularly as the weather may not cooperate tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm expecting your team to win tomorrow despite their poor batting today - I just don't think that we've got anyone, let alone 2 anyones, who can block it out for a draw and you have simply played a lot better than us.

annhig I don’t think Australia will win this game. Very poor batting, and our bowling early is poor. But then I have been wrong so early in this series and so often what would I know. I just don’t have confidence in this team.

Smith really annoys me as a Captain as I think he antagonises people. I expect the Captain of a side to have a bit of class off the field.

cheska - I disagree - I think Smith is a great captain and is normally very composed on the field - that's why the was so much surprise that he let the sledging get to him this time .-.Opinions - everyone's got one !

I fell asleep with the radio on the night before but only missed the bit where it rains and pay finished - which is why I wine up to music .

Can't work out why Smith didn't follow on either . Why didn't he refer the Cook LBW?

Lovely story involving Bairstow - a man Andrew Johns who when he was about 8 answered a question about who was the wicketkeeper for England - it was David Bairstow . For his prize he received a pair of wicket keepers gloves autographed by David . Just yesterday Andrew gave the gloves to Johnny Bairstow . Andrew said I just lost my dad so I thought how important it would be for Johnny to receive something his dad had written on especially as David had tragically died when Johnny was 9.
Johnny was very move to receive them and took the gloves to the Adelaide .