Ashes First Test Day 3 November 23 2025, Parmelia Hilton Hotel

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 Test in 2023, who live across the water here in Perth. They are very friendly with a lot of cricket people and while I was there Mitchell Starc's step-mum called my host. So I kept quiet. But here is the view of the city from their balcony.





Comments

  1. Anonymous23 November 2025 at 06:30

    I love that you are researching!!!!
    I assume that in time we will be having a statistical analysis of the games you have been watching…..I await with excitement!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ian Dutton24 November 2025 at 00:10

    Excellent update Tim and I agree with Glenn McGrath about Jamie Smith decision. I have just completed my first season as a qualified cricket umpire and what was drummed into us at every session, both online and practical, is that you must always give Give the batsman the benefit of the doubt if there is any. It took five minutes to review that decision so that means there was a considerable amount of doubt The Umpire education mantra is “the batsman only has one chance and he’s gone. The bowler can have many chances”. Shocking decision, but generally I thought the officials were pretty poor, almost as poor as some of the England batting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ashes First Test Day 2 (aka the final day), November 22, 2025, Optus Arena, Perth

Image
  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...
Read more

Emotional intensity is hotting up

Image
  Okay, things are getting emotionally intense now, the night before the first day of the first Test. I met others in my tour party, and then on to a cricket Australia for a session with Ricky Ponting followed by Jonathan Agnew and Mark Taylor , and finally Phil Tufnell ,  MC'd by Alison Mitchell who is great and a fantastic sports journalist. In summary, Ricky Ponting concluded that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses (!), but he predicted 3-2 to Australia,  Agnew and Taylor discussed fishing and piloting light aircraft, and Tufnell was, well, he was Phil Tufnell. Its emotionally quite intense now and it dawned on me tonight that I am witnessing something MASSIVE, and I am so lucky to be here. The room was full of about 500 people half of whom were Brits, and I had a lovely chat with an Aussie guy who is taking his elderly father to his first Test Match. I dont mind admitting I cried a bit I'll give a Day 1 update tomorrow. I did take some pics of downtown ...
Read more

Arrived Safe and Sound

 Ive just arrived at my hotel  in Perth. I need food ( I didn't eat anything except a banana on the second leg from Dubai to Perth) so I'm off to the restaurant. I'm told by Graham (my driver who picked me up from the airport) that the weather forecast is not too good for the first Test. likely to be a bit damp and cloudy, so whoever wins the toss will probably bowl. I met someone on the first leg from LHR to Dubai, who like me has an Australian naturalized daughter (his here in Perth, mine in Sydney). and his granddaughter is one of the flag carriers to welcome the teams onto the pitch at start of proceedings, so that's nice
Read more