The Ashes 2025/6

The  weather was a bit off today so I spent the morning at the Sea Life Aquarium. Basically lots of fish to see, with the odd crustacean, reptile, and bird. I went with my old touring friend Martin Padfield, we had our photo taken as we went in and quite sensibly Martin has kept the publishing rights to the picture. So with that avenue of pleasure denied to my loyal reader,  I thought I'd start with a night time shot of the city from the rooftop bar (Blossoms) at the Pullman, just to prove that It was open occasionally View from Blossoms at night with the Hyatt in the background So back to the Aquarium visit a few videos follow Jellyfish Little fish Big fish Not a fish And so with that many of us are off to Sydney at some ungodly hour. Stay tuned.

A brief summary of a day on the River Yarra A view of the 'G' in the distance We hadn't noticed the  low bridge coming up Angel by Deborah Halpern (this deserved a better picture). So here is something off the interweb... We need a bigger boat Melbourne skyline from the river  (photo: Graham Brewster ) Seasons greetings The pillars on this bridge have no function,  they are purely decorative

 Given that today should have been Day 3 of the surreal Boxing Day Test it only seems right to post a picture of a cow in a tree. A cow in a tree There was good piece in the Sunday Times by Alistair Cook about the Test.  It was pretty much a written version of  some of what he said at the CATO breakfast at the start of Day 2. The article is behind a paywall, so I'll briefly repeat his main points here about the lack of preparation for the tour :- England only played one warm up game among themselves before the first Test, so by the time they got to the first Test in Perth, they weren't match hardened When it came to the day night game in Brisbane, England had players like Jamie Smith, who had never played in a in a pink-ball game of any kind, and yet it had been known for years there was going to be a pink-ball Test England haven't got a fielding coach, and were dropping catches in in the first 3 Tests while Australia were taking worldies (breathtaking catches - ed) There...

Well who would've thought it? Most of us thought that Australia would bat all day today and then bowl us out tomorrow. I know most folks have snapped pics of the Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne Statues outside the ground, but these are my snaps for what they're worth                                      Dennis Lillee                           Shane Warne At the pre-match CATO event downtown this morning both Alistair Cook and Ricky Ponting, both remarked that the grass on the pitch was too long at 10mm and so disrupted the balance between bat and ball. I thought that compere , said it could be 2-1 after todayDamien Fleming's sheep could maybe be put  to work to take off a top layer. The Ponting and Cook Gardening hour As an aside, I thought Cook was a much better raconteur/story teller, than he is comm...

A Bazball Another crazy day in the world of BazBall, to be fair the bowlers did a good job, Tongue deserved his 5-fer (and don't forget he's on a hat trick, when he bowls next). But the batting was a disaster. Duckett is fried, Bethell is not a #3 Test batsman,  When he plays for Warwickshire, which is not often these days and is part of the problem, he bats at 7 or 8. It was obvious that he was going to fail. It was also obvious since Brook has switched back his default setting (see his first ball), that he was going to get out before he got to 50. Surely someone  has to accept responsibility for this cluster-f*ck, and my vote is McCullum, sincehe is the responsible line manager. He should be jettisoned before he does permanent damage to England Test cricket. Of course some structural changes are required. If it was up to me I would mandate that centrally contracted players play a minimum of 5 red ball fixtures for their county per season, and that the ECB should arrange the ...

  The weather has been pretty cool today (that's the temperature, not the vibe). So much so that  the temperature with  the wind has been required the weather services to issue a warning (I hope Damien Fleming got it - see my blog of Day 1 of the Brisbane Test) A bit of weather I'm very grateful for the fleece that I bought from Adelaide airport on the way here, as we had been warned about the variation in the weather here. Never-the-less the Christmas lunch was very good. and the sun did come out in the end. I thought the riverside view added to the occasion. crackers for lunch Just a few snaps taken on the push back to the hotel. A bridge over the River Yarra Flinders Street station    St Paul's cathedral Let's hope for a good day at the Test tomorrow. Looks like it will be chilly, so I will get more use out of my fleece which I bought primarily for the return to the UK.