Looking a bit green, might even be tempted to bowl first if you win the toss.

Peak Warming Man said:

Looking a bit green, might even be tempted to bowl first if you win the toss.

Looking forward to it. Not so sure about bowling first though. Depends on what it’s like under that green, I suppose.

:)

England have won the toss and elected to send Australia in to bat.

Got him! ….yes he’s gone.

Peak Warming Man said:

England have won the toss and elected to send Australia in to bat.

England have won the loss and elected to send Australia in to bat.

/fixed

So who is this Mary Le Bone woman? Can’t believe the poms would let some French wench own a cricket club, hey what but.

Woodie said:

So who is this Mary Le Bone woman? Can’t believe the poms would let some French wench own a cricket club, hey what but.

The church of St Mary on the Tyborn river. Got abbreviated a bit.

.. and tell me, is it still raining there in England?

party_pants said:

.. and tell me, is it still raining there in England?

No they are back out.
And Warner ahs been dropped by Pope in slips, well fielding in the slip position.

Peak Warming Man said:

party_pants said:

.. and tell me, is it still raining there in England?

No they are back out.
And Warner ahs been dropped by Pope in slips, well fielding in the slip position.

I thought Pope was supposed to be infallible..?

Stumps 5/339

Poms looking bit flat

Ian said:

Stumps 5/339

Poms looking bit flat

Seems like everthing they tried fell a bit flat.

Ha, I liked the humour in this headliine:
analysis:Bazball bluster turns to Lord’s lethargy as England tackles day one with a lack of energy

AUS all out 416. Not a bad effort after being sent in.

party_pants said:

AUS all out 416. Not a bad effort after being sent in.

They were sevenfa when I last took a peek.

Something,s coming through, yes it,s a F and a U, it’s FUCK OFF.
And it looks like it’s coming through again.

OOOOOT!! OOOOOT!!! EEEZ OOOT!

And they can all FUCK OFF

England all out for 325. AUS lead by 91 on the first innings.

That’s lunch and only rain can save England.

Peak Warming Man said:

That’s lunch and only rain can save England.

Not even halfway through the test. Still a good chance for both teams. A draw seems the least likely.

AUS nun-fa 62, lead of 153.

Stay on target….

NOOOOT!!!! ‘ES NOOOT OOOOT!

It is very gloomy out there in the middle at the moment, there’s some drizzle falling as well. Not great conditions to bat in.

Australia will be wanting to come off here I think.

roughbarked said:

It is very gloomy out there in the middle at the moment, there’s some drizzle falling as well. Not great conditions to bat in.

Australia will be wanting to come off here I think.

they’re off for the rain.

I might be off for beddy-byes soon too, soon as I finish this last glass-a.

party_pants said:

roughbarked said:

It is very gloomy out there in the middle at the moment, there’s some drizzle falling as well. Not great conditions to bat in.

Australia will be wanting to come off here I think.

they’re off for the rain.

I might be off for beddy-byes soon too, soon as I finish this last glass-a.

:) Sleep well. I should probably try another nap. As my clock seems to be a bit like that of the esteemd Mr Car. A meal or a beer or both sit down to watch the teev and drop off to dreamland, wake up in the middle of the night.

bugger.

Khawaja out for 77. Was hoping he’d get a hundred.

party_pants said:

bugger.

Khawaja out for 77. Was hoping he’d get a hundred.

.. and Smith goes next over.

Double bugger. Aus need to get 400+ in front. Currently lead by only 281. Need another 150 from here IMAO.

party_pants said:

party_pants said:

bugger.

Khawaja out for 77. Was hoping he’d get a hundred.

.. and Smith goes next over.

Double bugger. Aus need to get 400+ in front. Currently lead by only 281. Need another 150 from here IMAO.

They don’t have to rush. Stay steady

Aus all out. lead of 370. Should be enough.

party_pants said:

Aus all out. lead of 370. Should be enough.

You’d reckon.

Crazy-brave effort from Lyon who is out for 4, batting on one leg, while helping Stark to make 7.

Wow

Ian said:

Crazy-brave effort from Lyon who is out for 4, batting on one leg, while helping Stark to make 7.

Wow

Yeah, they made 10 runs, but consumed about 5 overs time-wise. It might be the difference. I am not comfortable with a lead of less than 400.

England 1- fa

Nearly 2-fa, but overturned on review – ball doing too much for LBW.

2-fa. Starc on fire. That swung a mile. No review needed when you knock middle stump over.

I read that Lyon batted! Heck!

(I couldn’t stay up that late.)

They still need 257 to win, and we still have to get six wickets to win.

Michael V said:

I read that Lyon batted! Heck!

(I couldn’t stay up that late.)

They still need 257 to win, and we still have to get six wickets to win.

Aye, we’re in the box seat with Broad batting at 7 England have a very long tail.

Michael V said:

I read that Lyon batted! Heck!

(I couldn’t stay up that late.)

They still need 257 to win, and we still have to get six wickets to win.

It will be game on. Sad about Nathan.

Starc caught that clean as a whistle, in my view it was a clean catch.
Maybe the rules have changed? dunno.

Peak Warming Man said:

Starc caught that clean as a whistle, in my view it was a clean catch.
Maybe the rules have changed? dunno.

Bad umpire’s decision?
I must have been asleep at that moment.

Peak Warming Man said:

Starc caught that clean as a whistle, in my view it was a clean catch.
Maybe the rules have changed? dunno.

I was watching it at the time last night. Caught the ball easy enough, but did a slide/dive to complete the motion. During the dive he slid his hand which was holding the ball along the ground. Clearly not out IMHO because the ball touched the ground while he was completing the motion. He needed to either turn his wrist so the fingers were under the ball, or lift the ball in the air whilst completing the slide.

Video of said non-catch lunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IeWNVr43CI

party_pants said:

Video of said non-catch lunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IeWNVr43CI

The controversy will carry on but it really was all over when the umpire said out.

roughbarked said:

party_pants said:

Video of said non-catch lunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IeWNVr43CI

The controversy will carry on but it really was all over when the umpire said out.

It was referred to the TV umpire, who said NOT out.

party_pants said:

roughbarked said:

party_pants said:

Video of said non-catch lunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IeWNVr43CI

The controversy will carry on but it really was all over when the umpire said out.

It was referred to the TV umpire, who said NOT out.

Yeah. That’s what I meant to say. Missed the word, not.

All FUCK OFF for 327

Ian said:

All FUCK OFF for 327

:)

There was someone else watching. :)

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

I wonder if they were as vocal two days earlier when Bairnsdale himself tried the same ploy against Labuschagne?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1675575411344908288

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-03/mccullum-hits-out-over-bairstow-dismissal-during-ashes-at-lords/102553634

I also wonder whether anyone has reminded them that the rules of cricket, including stumping someone for steeping out of their crease, were written by Englishmen?

If the tactic is ‘not in the spirit of the game’, why was it written into the rules, and why is it allowed to stay there?

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

I wonder if they were as vocal two days earlier when Bairnsdale himself tried the same ploy against Labuschagne?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1675575411344908288

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-03/mccullum-hits-out-over-bairstow-dismissal-during-ashes-at-lords/102553634

I also wonder whether anyone has reminded them that the rules of cricket, including stumping someone for steeping out of their crease, were written by Englishmen?

If the tactic is ‘not in the spirit of the game’, why was it written into the rules, and why is it allowed to stay there?

I was just cleaning up the pink items in the left margin, when i noticed that i referred to players ‘steeping out of their crease’.

Now i’m occupied with pondering on how one might ‘steep’ out of a crease.

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

captain_spalding said:

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

I wonder if they were as vocal two days earlier when Bairnsdale himself tried the same ploy against Labuschagne?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1675575411344908288

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-03/mccullum-hits-out-over-bairstow-dismissal-during-ashes-at-lords/102553634

I also wonder whether anyone has reminded them that the rules of cricket, including stumping someone for steeping out of their crease, were written by Englishmen?

If the tactic is ‘not in the spirit of the game’, why was it written into the rules, and why is it allowed to stay there?

I was just cleaning up the pink items in the left margin, when i noticed that i referred to players ‘steeping out of their crease’.

Now i’m occupied with pondering on how one might ‘steep’ out of a crease.

Ooze out?

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

It is the three who were stood down for tripping Aussie players who need their legs removed at the knees.
Bairstow fucked up and the Englishmen allowed their coach from EnZud to make comments.
Nobody on the English side said that Mitchell Starc’s catch was legal and should have been given out.

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay went all lyrical.

“Frankly, it’s just not Bazball, old boy. On a febrile, toxic, at times mildly hallucinogenic day at Lord’s the cricketers of England and Australia produced one of the most obscurely rancorous days of high summer sport seen in this country.
Australia’s players were barracked by MCC members as they walked into the pavilion at the lunch break, with reports of “physical contact” initiated by the red-trousered ultras. The Lord’s crowd booed and jeered across four gruelling hours from midday to the close of play, a level of hostility that has surely never been witnessed inside this most mannered of environments, a place where a day’s cricket can often feel less like elite sport, more like a garden party that got out of hand.
In the best cricketing tradition of behavioural etiquette, the entire occasion turned on the exact timing of a man in a hat saying the word “over”, while another man prodded a patch of manicured north London clay with a piece of wood.”

Nice one Barney.

Peak Warming Man said:

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay went all lyrical.

“Frankly, it’s just not Bazball, old boy. On a febrile, toxic, at times mildly hallucinogenic day at Lord’s the cricketers of England and Australia produced one of the most obscurely rancorous days of high summer sport seen in this country.
Australia’s players were barracked by MCC members as they walked into the pavilion at the lunch break, with reports of “physical contact” initiated by the red-trousered ultras. The Lord’s crowd booed and jeered across four gruelling hours from midday to the close of play, a level of hostility that has surely never been witnessed inside this most mannered of environments, a place where a day’s cricket can often feel less like elite sport, more like a garden party that got out of hand.
In the best cricketing tradition of behavioural etiquette, the entire occasion turned on the exact timing of a man in a hat saying the word “over”, while another man prodded a patch of manicured north London clay with a piece of wood.”

Nice one Barney.

are the aussies cheating again?

Peak Warming Man said:

Woodie said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Good lord! Two bad Lords members stood down for swearing.
It’s not right.

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay went all lyrical.

“Frankly, it’s just not Bazball, old boy. On a febrile, toxic, at times mildly hallucinogenic day at Lord’s the cricketers of England and Australia produced one of the most obscurely rancorous days of high summer sport seen in this country.
Australia’s players were barracked by MCC members as they walked into the pavilion at the lunch break, with reports of “physical contact” initiated by the red-trousered ultras. The Lord’s crowd booed and jeered across four gruelling hours from midday to the close of play, a level of hostility that has surely never been witnessed inside this most mannered of environments, a place where a day’s cricket can often feel less like elite sport, more like a garden party that got out of hand.
In the best cricketing tradition of behavioural etiquette, the entire occasion turned on the exact timing of a man in a hat saying the word “over”, while another man prodded a patch of manicured north London clay with a piece of wood.”

Nice one Barney.

;)

ChrispenEvan said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Woodie said:

It’s outrageous!! I’m absolutely appalled!!! The Prime Minister should resign and the Ambassador must be recalled. This is an international incident of the most magnanimous proportions. Justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done. There must be total transparency in the investigation and must be brought before the International Court of Justice. It’s just not cricket. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay went all lyrical.

“Frankly, it’s just not Bazball, old boy. On a febrile, toxic, at times mildly hallucinogenic day at Lord’s the cricketers of England and Australia produced one of the most obscurely rancorous days of high summer sport seen in this country.
Australia’s players were barracked by MCC members as they walked into the pavilion at the lunch break, with reports of “physical contact” initiated by the red-trousered ultras. The Lord’s crowd booed and jeered across four gruelling hours from midday to the close of play, a level of hostility that has surely never been witnessed inside this most mannered of environments, a place where a day’s cricket can often feel less like elite sport, more like a garden party that got out of hand.
In the best cricketing tradition of behavioural etiquette, the entire occasion turned on the exact timing of a man in a hat saying the word “over”, while another man prodded a patch of manicured north London clay with a piece of wood.”

Nice one Barney.

are the aussies cheating again?

No, it was not cheating. It is applying the letter of the law.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak backs up the England cricket team in their complaints about the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow.

FFS.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-04/sunak-joins-anti-australian-pile-on-after-second-ashes-test/102557428

Link

A Yankee take:

…

Cricket Dispute Has Australia Leading and England Crying Foul
A play at the Ashes was technically called correctly, yet it had England’s fans chanting, “Same old Aussies, always cheating.” Even Britain’s prime minister has weighed in.

By Victor Mather
July 3, 2023, 12:09 p.m. ET

It just wasn’t cricket.

Even as salaries soar and stakes mount, professional cricket has clung to the notion that it is a game for gentlemen and ladies, with players held to a higher standard of sportsmanship.

Ball-doctoring and betting scandals have taken some of the shine off the traditions of the game, but the sense that fair play is the highest goal still hangs on, especially at Lord’s, the London venue that is the traditional home of cricket.

But an incident on Sunday in the Ashes series between England and Australia led to a fierce dispute among partisans of both teams, a comment from a prime minister and even some ugly scenes in the hallowed grounds of Lord’s.

England trailed the five-match series, 1-0, and the second match was coming down to the wire in its fifth and final day.

Jonny Bairstow of England let a ball from the Australian bowler go past, and then, thinking the play was over, took a step or two forward. He had left his crease, the rough equivalent of a base runner stepping off the bag. But the ball was not yet dead, and the quick-thinking Australian wicketkeeper, Alex Carey, threw the ball in, knocking over the wicket, and Bairstow was called out.

No one disputed that the umpires were correct in calling him out. The question was whether the Australians exploiting Bairstow’s casual steps were not adhering to the spirit of the game.

The largely English crowd certainly thought so, and boos and chants of “Same old Aussies, always cheating” rang out at the ground. (The chant seemed to allude in part to Australians being caught ball-doctoring in 2018.)

As the Australians left for the lunch break, they passed through the members-only Long Room, normally a solemn shrine to cricket. There they were surrounded and confronted by angry members of the venerable Marylebone Cricket Club, many of them quite venerable themselves.

The club announced that three members had been suspended after the incident.

You know it’s bad when the long room turns into millwall away #Ashes23 pic.twitter.com/gdaKCj8s54

Reaction was swift and reached as high as the prime minister of Britain, Rishi Sunak. His spokesman said Sunak believed the play violated the spirit of the game.

The England captain, Ben Stokes, said: “For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no.”

Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, understandably saw it differently: “I thought it was fair. It’s a really common thing for keepers to do. Jonny left his crease. You leave the rest to the umpires.”

Australia, aided by Bairstow’s dismissal, went on to win the Test and take an almost unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series. It’s a deep hole: Only once has a team come back to win the Ashes from such a deficit: Australia in 1937. Test No. 3 starts Thursday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/sports/cricket/england-australia-ashes-dispute.html?

Witty Rejoinder said:

A Yankee take:

…

Cricket Dispute Has Australia Leading and England Crying Foul
A play at the Ashes was technically called correctly, yet it had England’s fans chanting, “Same old Aussies, always cheating.” Even Britain’s prime minister has weighed in.

By Victor Mather
July 3, 2023, 12:09 p.m. ET

It just wasn’t cricket.

Even as salaries soar and stakes mount, professional cricket has clung to the notion that it is a game for gentlemen and ladies, with players held to a higher standard of sportsmanship.

Ball-doctoring and betting scandals have taken some of the shine off the traditions of the game, but the sense that fair play is the highest goal still hangs on, especially at Lord’s, the London venue that is the traditional home of cricket.

But an incident on Sunday in the Ashes series between England and Australia led to a fierce dispute among partisans of both teams, a comment from a prime minister and even some ugly scenes in the hallowed grounds of Lord’s.

England trailed the five-match series, 1-0, and the second match was coming down to the wire in its fifth and final day.

Jonny Bairstow of England let a ball from the Australian bowler go past, and then, thinking the play was over, took a step or two forward. He had left his crease, the rough equivalent of a base runner stepping off the bag. But the ball was not yet dead, and the quick-thinking Australian wicketkeeper, Alex Carey, threw the ball in, knocking over the wicket, and Bairstow was called out.

No one disputed that the umpires were correct in calling him out. The question was whether the Australians exploiting Bairstow’s casual steps were not adhering to the spirit of the game.

The largely English crowd certainly thought so, and boos and chants of “Same old Aussies, always cheating” rang out at the ground. (The chant seemed to allude in part to Australians being caught ball-doctoring in 2018.)

As the Australians left for the lunch break, they passed through the members-only Long Room, normally a solemn shrine to cricket. There they were surrounded and confronted by angry members of the venerable Marylebone Cricket Club, many of them quite venerable themselves.

The club announced that three members had been suspended after the incident.

You know it’s bad when the long room turns into millwall away #Ashes23 pic.twitter.com/gdaKCj8s54

Reaction was swift and reached as high as the prime minister of Britain, Rishi Sunak. His spokesman said Sunak believed the play violated the spirit of the game.

The England captain, Ben Stokes, said: “For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no.”

Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, understandably saw it differently: “I thought it was fair. It’s a really common thing for keepers to do. Jonny left his crease. You leave the rest to the umpires.”

Australia, aided by Bairstow’s dismissal, went on to win the Test and take an almost unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series. It’s a deep hole: Only once has a team come back to win the Ashes from such a deficit: Australia in 1937. Test No. 3 starts Thursday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/sports/cricket/england-australia-ashes-dispute.html?

Was Bairstow’s controversial stumping at Lord’s in the spirit of cricket?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5rQdYzKJaw

knil

Baz runs out Collingwood in very similar circumstances.

party_pants said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5rQdYzKJaw

knil

Baz runs out Collingwood in very similar circumstances.

There’s the man.. eh?

Sent to me by a pommie I talk to about the cricket:

Well mate it’s time for some hard truth that you I guess will already know some of it.

The ashes strife, one hundred and one seasons age, a pair of gates to Lord’sCricket Ground was erected on St John’s Wood Road through which generations of MCC members have passed. They honour the most dominant cricketer of his age, many would say the greatest Victorian sportsman, who with his 22-stone build and huge beard remains a recognisable English hero. WG Grace was also an almighty cheat. When we consider the hoo-hah that has dominated the Ashes since Australia claimed the wicket of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s last Sunday, anthem was sneaky but not against the laws of cricket, yet somehow required the intervention of two prime ministers and the need for every political, sporting and cultural figure in two countries to declare whether they were on the side of the cheating convicts or the whingeing Poms – we should remember that WE STARTED IT. Indeed, without WG Grace doing to Sammy Jones what Pat Cummins did to Bairstow, th Ashes would not exist.
The incident happened on the second afternoon of the Test at the Oval in 1882. Australia were hoping to set a defendable target when their captain, Billy Murdoch, took a single. When the ball was thrown in, Grace nonchalantly picked it up and went to return it to the bowler but then noticed that the 21-year-old Jones had wandered out of his crease to tap down an uneven patch of the wicket. It was later claimed that Jones had caught Grace’s eye and received a nod that convinced him the ball was “dead” and it was fine to do this gardening. Nonetheless, Grace trotted to the stumps, knocked off the bails and appealed to the square-leg umpire, Bob Thomas, who asked if he was serious. When Grace insisted that he was, Thoms replied: “If you appeal for it, I’m sorry to say the gentleman is out.” He added that in his view this was “not cricket”.
Jones, like Bairsstow, was guilty of naivety but Grace had broken only the spirit of the game, not the law. “I taught the young lad a valuable lesson,“he said. This was in character for the doctor from Bristol, a champion all-rounder but an utter rotter. An obituary euphemistically said he was “desperately keen to win and consequently led to be very rigid in demanding his full rights”. He bullied officials, often simply refusing to accept that he was out. His desire to win even led to him kidnapping an Australian cricketer from the dressing room at Lord’s in 1878 because he wanted him to play for his county at the Oval.
It is no wonder that HH Asquith secured the passage of the 1911 Parliament Act after threatening to give Grace a peerage and impose him on the House of Lords.
Much like the way Australia’s sharp practice inspired fireworks from Ben Stokes last Sunday, WG’s action had repercussions. Ford Spofforth, a fast bowler known as the Demon, stormed into the England dressing room and, after deploying all the colourful words in the Aussie vernacular, left with the treat: “This will lose you the match.” England needed only 85 to win but with a fired-up Spofforth taking seven wickets in a finale that was so tense one spectator died and another chewed through his umbrella handle, the touring side bowled them out for 77. The Sporting Times wrote a mock obituary lamenting the death of English cricket that ended by saying that the Ashes would be taken to Australia. The next winter, England regained them. As Simon Rae, Grace’s biographer, wrote; “The greatest trophy in cricket came into being as a result of an action which was clearly “not cricket.”
Over 141 years and 73 series, Ashes matches have echoed to the sound of boos, fuelled by booze, as the upstart mongrels used sport to prove a point to the patronising mother country.
We love each other really – the best of enemies – and much of it is a form of pantomime but sometimes, as last week, it has boiled over.
The most serous flashpoint was the body line controversy in 1932-33 when the tactics of Douglas Jardine, the England captain, instructing his bowlers to aim at the batsmen’s bodies, completely legal at the time, provoked fury.
After Bill Woodfull, the Australia captain, was struck a blow on the heart in the third Test, he rejected the England manager’s apology, saying: “There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not.”
The quote leaked and the match resumed with 50,000 Adelaide spectators shouting: “Pommie bastards!”.
When Harold Harwood, England’s fastest bowler, then fractured Bert Oldfield’s skull with a bouncer, order broke down. “The majority of spectators completely lost hold on all their feelings,” Wisden wrote.
Diplomatic cables shot back and forth in which the Australian board accused the visitors of being unsportsmanlike and MCC threatened to bring the team home.
The governor of South Australia, Alexander Gore-Ruthven, in England at the time, warned the Secretary of State for dominion affairs that trade between the two countries could be affected. Peace was brokered only after Joseph Lyons, the Australian prime minister, was warned by the high commission of financial repercussions if the charge of cheating remained.
Every few series, something seems to blow up. In 1958-59, England alleged that Ian Meckiff “threw” the ball, against the laws. In 1970-71, John Snow, the England fast bowler, hit Australia’s Terry Jenner on the head with a bouncer, earning a warning from the umpire and a shower of beer bottles from the crowd at Sydney as he fielded on the boundary.
Ray Illingworth, Snow’‘s captain, led his team off the pitch, in protest. Ian Botham and Ian Chappell, among the brightest stars and biggest egos the Ashes has known, resumed a 45-year feud with personal comments this week, two stags still locking horns.
Ten years ago, David Warner, the Australia opening batsman, was banned for two matches after thumping England’s Joe Root in a bar. In the first test of that series, Stuart Broad, who has developed the habit of dismissing Warner cheaply, incensed Australia’s fielders by refusing to walk after clearly edging the ball to slip.
Since the umpire had somehow missed it, Broad refused to leave the crease. He made 65 runs and England won by 14. Australians still whinge about it. WG Grace would undoubtedly have approved.

A piece by Patrick Kidd.
Well mate, did you know it all, or some of it, did you find it of interest.

old Trafford is next up, I’m wondering what fun will happen there.