52% intelligent. 9% modest. More monkey than bear.

Monday, September 12, 2005

It's gonna be a glorious day

Indulge me for a moment will you? You may remember me banging on about it just before the first match in the series, and again after the Trent Bridge test and the Spanish Cardinal incident.... but let me hold forth on the subject one last time. Something has just happened which means an enormous amount to me: England have regained the Ashes.

"In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP. NB The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia."

Thus reads the inscription on one of the oldest but least impressive trophies in sport (it's about 5 inches high). A tiny little wooden urn that contains the ashes of the bales burned after that famous game when Australia beat England at their own game on English soil.

I've pretty much always been interested in cricket, but the first series that I ever really watched ball-by-ball over the course of the summer was in 1989. England had held the Ashes for a decade, and looked the stronger side again. It didn't quite work out like that though: the Aussies scored 601/7 (dec) in the first innings of the summer and never looked back. England were spanked, and it's been more of the same ever since then.

Look at this shameful roll-call of series results:

--> 1989 --- 4-0 Australia (in England)
--> 1990/1 --- 3-0 Australia (in Australia)
--> 1993 --- 4-1 Australia (in England)
--> 1994/5 --- 3-1 Australia (in Australia)
--> 1997 --- 3-2 Australia (in England)
--> 1998/9 --- 3-1 Australia (in Australia)
--> 2001 --- 4-1 Australia (in England)
--> 2002/3 --- 4-1 Australia (in Australia)

16 long bloody years. We didn't just lose, we were constantly humiliated.

More often than not, when England did win a game, it was only when the outcome of the series had already been decided (the only exception being Edgbaston in 1997).

Until today, not a single player in the English side had tasted series victory against the Australians, and not a single player in the Australian side had tasted series defeat to the English. A whole generation of English players has come and gone since England last won. Michael Atherton made his test debut during the series in 1989 and retired after the final Test against the Australians in 2001. In between he played in 115 test matches and never once got close to winning a series against the Aussies... nowhere near. By way of contrast, the last Australian player to lose a series to England was Steve Waugh - who retired from cricket in 2004, but played in that 1987/8 series.

But all of that finally ended today when England comfortably held on for a draw at The Oval and won the series 2-1, thus regaining the Ashes - and what's more, they bloody deserved it. England have played some sensational cricket this summer, and have had the better of the number one side in the world. It says a lot for the Austalians that they made it such a close series: at least three of the matches could easily have gone their way. In Shane Warne (623 Test wickets and counting) and Glenn McGrath (518 Test wickets and counting) they have two of the greatest bowlers ever to play the game, and my word they didn't give in easily. It was one of the best series ever, and the country was gripped - even when the Premiership season started in the middle of the third test of the summer.

It's a great day, and I make no apologies for enjoying the moment.

----

(by the way, the bloke below was Richie Benaud - one of the game's greatest commentators, who was today behind the microphone for his last Test Match in England)

7 Comments:

  • At 8:29 pm, Blogger Mark said…

    it's the British way. We invent it, they play it better than us, and so be it. I can't say I'm bothered myself, but sport is blah to me.

     
  • At 8:31 pm, Blogger LB said…

    bloody brilliant.

    Even at lunchtime today it was all hanging in the balance, and a great big shout out to rubbishly coiffeured "show pony" Kevin Pietersen and boring talent-lacking-yet-strangely-effective King of Spain Ashley Giles who saved the day.

    and a great big cheer for Shane Warne as well who was unlucky not to be named "Man of the Series" - 40 odd wickets and the tenth highest run scorer in the series.

    what a great way to use a day's annual leave....

     
  • At 11:04 pm, Blogger John McClure said…

    An old fella in a pub tonight told me about a cartoon he'd seen in the paper the day after Northern Ireland beat England at football last week. Two England fans were standing looking at a set of goalposts as one said to the other "We're going to need a bigger urn."

    Well done England!
    Bad luck you Aussies!

     
  • At 9:45 am, Blogger Poll Star said…

    I don't see why you should have to ask for anyone's indulgence, especially given the Ashes misery that you and I have sat through since December 1986.

    It was all capped off for me sitting in the pub later, when the doctor, who'd been saying how marvellous it all was, launched into 'I used to really love football, but can't be doing with it any more.'

    It's been a great summer. Bloody marvellous-in the words of a truly wonderful man 'I've stopped crying now'.

     
  • At 10:01 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    We'll indulge you if you quote the correct inscription that appears on the urn or the correct source of your quote.

    For someone who prides himself on his accuracy, this is shocking, Mr Swiss. ;-)

     
  • At 10:28 am, Blogger swisslet said…

    it's a fair cop:

    After the third game of the 1882/83 tour, the English team, led by Ivo Bligh were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property "Rupertswood" at Sunbury, Victoria. A group of Victorian ladies headed by Lady Clarke burned what has variously been called a ball, bail or veil, and presented the resulting ashes to Bligh in an urn together with a velvet bag, which was made by Mrs Ann Fletcher, the daughter of Joseph Hines Clarke and Marion Wright, both of Dublin. She said, "What better way than to actually present the English captain with the very 'object' — albeit mythical — he had come to Australia to retrieve?" Bligh later married another of these Melbournian ladies, Florence Morphy. When he died in 1927, his widow presented the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club. The urn itself is made of terracotta and is about four inches (10 cm) tall.

    A poem was presented to Bligh with the urn and appears on it:

    When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
    Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
    The welkin will ring loud,
    The great crowd will feel proud,
    Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
    And the rest coming home with the urn.
    The Ashes urn itself is never physically awarded to either England or Australia, but is kept permanently in the MCC Cricket Museum at Lord's Cricket Ground, where it can be seen together with a specially-made red and gold velvet bag and the scorecard of the 1882 match.

    The urn has been back to Australia once, in 1988 for a museum tour as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. In the 1990s, given Australia's long dominance of the Ashes series, the idea was mooted (mostly by Australians) that the victorious team in an Ashes series should be awarded the urn as a trophy and allowed to retain it until the next series. Instead the MCC commissioned a Waterford Crystal larger-scale replica trophy which is now awarded to the winning team.

    In 2002, Bligh's great-great-grandson (Lord Clifton, the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Darnley) argued that the Ashes urn should not be returned to Australia as it was essentially the property of his family and only given to the MCC for safe-keeping

    My quote came from a mock obituary quoted in the Sporting Times.

    Better? (although, to be fair, cricinfo also has this wrong, I think)

    ST

     
  • At 6:08 pm, Blogger Ali said…

    Good for you - revel in the moment. :) Cheers!

    I don't give a flying foible about cricket, but when I heard England was victorious, I immediately thought of you. In my mind, SwissToni = Cricket.

    Funny old game, innit? :)

     

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