While the first has been dione and dusted for very nearly two months now, this somewhat smaller and less well known contest came to its denouement today in the tense final minutes as the English tail wagged and the series came down right to the wire after looking all but there for the taking for the Australians.
Now I should add, this is not a professional series. In fact this effort is so amateur there wasn’t one nets session the whole summer. The crowd was considerably less than the hundreds of thousands who attended the other Ashes, and no one watched it on television. While there was some sponsorship, it amounted to a few hundred dollars invested in shirts a couple of years ago – and we are still wearing them.
But make no mistake, there was just as much at stake.
With Australia taking the first match back in November – at the same venue, Tunks Park on Sydney's North Shore; and England taking the second (which I was not able to play in) in December in Balmain, the series was level.
The rules are very slightly different too: 35 overs, forced retirement after scoring 25 runs (able to come back in later when all the other batsmen are out), five overs only per bowler and a free hit for the one’s first ball. The atmosphere of “everyone should have a go” drives the game to ensure to full participation. God knows with the quality of my batting and bowling, I’m a big fan of these rules!
Some early and impressive wickets from the dangerous bowling of England Captain, Mr Garvey, and England looked confidently in control before the bowlers and fielders tired in the 30 degree heat and the Australians ran up an intimidating 213 by the 35th over. For the Australians, Mssrs Finn and Clarke in particular, the bat became an extension of their arms and the runs just kept coming and the chances were missed (not least when I perplexingly dropped a sitter of a catch!) But with a wicket in the last over, we at least went into tea upbeat.
The English batting got off to a fairly strong start after one early wicket and a successful chase was built – mainly by the Man of the Match, Mr Cutler, carrying an unhealed broken thumb. But then calamity struck. A mid-order batting collapse any English side would have been proud of. Suddenly the required run rate got away from us and the wickets piled up. Penetrative bowling by the Australians did for the English – myself included, caught behind for 7 – and by tea, even their English team mates had given up and began making plans for the evening.
But quietly, while the crowd – numbering about twenty people, half of them under 10 – became embroiled in preparing food, drinking beer and generally chewing the fat, the English tag wagged. And wagged. And wagged. Eleventh Man Mr Riley built successive partnerships with returning 25-ers Mssrs Cutler and Garvey and before long the target was in sight. Suddenly it was 23 runs needed from 18 balls. The total was finally put away with a loudly-cheered six in the last over and the poms stole the series 2-1.
After eight years – five of which I have been lucky enough to be involved - the whole rivalry is now locked at four-four. Season 2011-12 will no doubt take the tension to a new level!