Saturday 1 January 2011

Melbourne Mania - England retain the Ashes

Dear all
Happy Christmas everyone!
We arrived back in Melbourne on Xmas Eve and headed straight over to PJ O'Briens which was the BA HQ for the fourth test. Deans old workmates Andy and Charlotte were in town so we all celebrated together with about 200 other BA fans. The alcohol flowed fast and I managed to persuade Dean to get tickets to the BA Xmas lunch at the crown casino which turned out to be a complete hoot. The alcohol flowed freely for about 4 hours and during lunch we sang loads of Carols where the words had been re-written Barmy Army style! Billy, Vic Gilo & Deco led the singing and everyone joined in. What made it sweeter was that the Aussie team were just down the corridor having lunch with their families & could probably hear everything! The party carried on at PJ's afterwards, with more drinking and singing and was a very different way to spend the day.
So still hampered with hangovers we set off with high hopes to the boxing day test and we were not disappointed. We won the toss and send the Aussies in to bat. We were all a little nervous with that decision given the Perth, but Straussy didn't disappoint and we had the Aussies all out for 98.
Yep you heard right 98 still can't quite take it in and it got even better when we were 157-0 by close of play. I think it has to by my all time greatest test cricket day that didn't yield a result and must have been special as Aggers full of stats told us that it was the first time ever in test cricket where a team had a 10 wicket lead after day one. Nice to see another record falling! We had to explain to Andy & Charlotte that these sorts of things didn't happen every day in cricket given it was their first ever time!! lucky things!
Suffice to say the rest of the test went the same way and by day lunch on day four we had retained the ashes and the party had started. Firstly in the ground with the England team coming out to give their thanks for our support and doing their own little sprinkler dance for us, which made the front page of most the papers.
The party carried on in PJ's with more drinking and singing and then a few of the stalwarts moved off to a small wine bar in North Melbourne, the Leveson where all the merriment continued. More was to come as a few of the players located where we were and turned up. It was chaos for about 30 Min's as everyone took their photos, then all the singing and partying resumed till late into the night!


And off to Sydney we must go...................................

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