The Ashes 2025/6

For those of you coming to the third Test, here is a sneak peek of the ground that I visited today. A scale model of the ground The highlight of the tour for me was a look around the iconic score board, which is still manually operated and it still lights a bulb next to the fielder's batting order number (a practice long discontinued in England) As you can see there is a lot of wood in the construction of the structure Here is the view of the pitch from the box looking out from where the batters name would be This is the switch gear (L) and circuitry (R) for lighting up the bulbs next to  a player's name (whether batting, bowling or fielding). Well one has to There are a number of statues around the ground both inside and out. Don Bradman's is outside the ground, but I missed getting a snap of that so Ive grabbed one from the interweb Sir Don Bradman The Sir Donald Bradman pavilion Jason Gillespie                       Dar...

What are the odds of two statisticians from the same department at the University of Warwick independently booking themselves on the same trip to Kangaroo Island with the same itinerary? Well pretty low but that is what happened today! I got on the bus at my hotel to go to the ferry terminal to be met by my colleague Prof Murray Pollock (he is at Newcastle university now, having left Warwick a couple of years ago, but still). Two random statisticians from the University of Warwick meeting in a totally random place In any event Kangaroo island is pretty amazing - we saw Koala, Kangaroos, Sealions, Wedge-tail eagles all in the wild. Seeing the seals on the beach was pretty awesome they have to sleep for 3 days after hunting for food at the bottom of the ocean. Just making it back is an achievement because they are the choice first course of a Great White This little fella was hungry and looking for his mom... ... and he found her. The choice first course of Kangaroos is seeds and nuts, b...

 I'm in South Australia at the moment on a side trip before I head to Brisbane on Tuesday, The time zone here is 30 minutes behind Sydney (and Brisbane) and 2.5 hours ahead of Perth. I did another wine tour today. It was a small group just 5 of us ( a couple from the Wirral) and a Mom and daughter from Miami. I Learnt about wines with a long nose, and those with a short nose, and (I think relatedly) wines with a long finish and ones with a short nose. A lake (not a wine lake) A cricket square at Château Tanunda, where they have played some Masters matches on this pitch (retired Test Players; Botham has played here). Sunil Gavaskar has some wine in a cellar here. A chimney A spot of wine at Lambert winery where we had lunch which was excellent Getting some fresh air after lunch A quick view of the Barossa valley

 I'm in Adelaide for a side trip to a winery (tomorrow) and Kangaroo Island on Sunday Also I'm posting a guest blog by Ian Dutton based on his trip to Rottnest Island yesterday. He was late filing his copy because his phone battery died (no points for excuse originality there; I would've been more impressed by the dog ate my phone), so it's a day late. Ian agreeing to do a guest post at breakfast yesterday A day out at Rottnest Island by Ian Dutton In discussions with the Bard at  breakfast (see pic above) it appears I have the unenviable task of following another Warwickshire author in contributing to his daily blog! Help! Well, today ( actually yesterday - ed) was probably the perfect medicine for banishing the Ben Stokes blues. Steve and I headed to Rottnest Island which was attached to the mainland 17,000 years ago and upon which remains of the Aborigine people have been found and we had a few discoveries of our own. Firstly, the beaches - absolutely stunning. I c...

I didn't do a whole lot today except eat ice-cream, so I'm just posting a few pics I took while in Perth that might be of passing interest.. (my favourite is the pic of the Terracotta warriors in front of  the 'paper clip') Tomorrow I'm leaving for Adelaide, to visit Kangaroo Island and take in another wine tour (If it smells like wine it is wine...). I will re-connect with some of my fellow tourers in Brisbane. Thanks for your company and help thus far. For everyone at home stay tuned...

​a very brief report today Lovely wine tour up the Swan River today Alternative view of the Optus Stadium from the river. A few of us ended up at Henry’s rooftop bar when we got back Came across some Terracotta warriors on the way back to the hotel by the paper clip which was cool

There are according to an article in the Guardian 40,000 Brits in Perth looking for things to do Breaking News: The accommodation for the England Cricket Team for the next Test has been announced: exclusive pictures of their accommodation follows. Crawley and Brook are sharing (Note the game plane for Brisbane  already sketched on the wall) The rest of the team are on the higher floors  of the establishment (observe the installation of Nets for ongoing practice) The advanced England Team accommodation party of (L-R)  Steve,Ian, Tim and Bill celebrated sorting out the accommodation at the Bread in Common restaurant in Fremantle after securing rooms for the team...

There is not much more to say about the cricket thus far. But I did come across the following stat, which I thought was mildly interesting. Wickets taken in in the first Ashes Test by country of birth:- Australia 20 New Zealand 5 South Africa 5 Barbados 2 England 0 Brett Lee also had something interesting to say on the bounce at Perth which I came across as I was doom scrolling on Twitter (currently known as X). Given the repeated use of expletives I suspect this clip has been dubbed, but it is funny... Finally yesterday, Alison Mitchell had some interesting observations on the Pink Ball Test coming up on a program called Offsiders on ABC  (you can see it on the ABC Iview  but you have to create an account; its free). To finish off today a sunset pic and the City at night

Keith Johns from our group had breakfast with Glenn McGrath this morning, who thought that Jamie Smith should not have been given out (see my post from yesterday). So while the England cricket team are apparently golfing today, I thought I'd do some research on the technology behind Ultra Edge and its accuracy. (Frankly all third umpires should know this stuff, and the guy yesterday clearly didn't). I I did a bit of research courtesy of ChatGPT and according to some sources air turbulence can generate a signal similar to what we saw yesterday, so I reckon that's a plausible explanation - the wave form is not really a 'spike' I asked ChatGPT to pull together a summary of what the cricketing commentariat were saying. You can read that here if you hasve the time and inclination... I was planning to do a bit more research on this today particularly on the turbulence point but I've been out for most of the day with two Aussie friends I met at the Edgbaston Ashes Te...

  Well that was interesting. To win a Test match you've got to take 20 wickets. Taking 10 cheaply to secure a first innings lead isn't enough. Attendance over the two days was close to 100,000 (51,000 yesterday and 49,000 today), by far the biggest crowd Ive ever been to for a Test match. When you think that the capacity at Lord's is 26,000 and that is our biggest ground, you get the idea. I had an elevated view today which enabled me to look at the whole field of play at once see the pic below We lost this game because key wickets were thrown away with daft shots ( "How to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory" by B McCullum is a good reference) and our bowlers just didn't perform today they all looked knackered with no stamina. Okay there were  a couple of controversial umpiring decisions. Was Mitchell Starc's catch off his own bowling to dismiss Zak Crawley for his second first over duck of the match clean?. The law regarding a clean catch is not a...