Sellsy's Monday Supplement

The English cricket team will soon be jetting off to Australia to defend the greatest prize in sport – The Ashes. But can you cast your minds back to January 2003, in fact January 2^nd – 6^th 2003, a Test match to remember - Australia v England at Sydney, the 5^th Test.

With Britain in the grips of a big freeze, I had just come off Bondi Beach after an early morning dip, well getting rid of my New Year’s hangover, and a journey to the SCG beckoned.

England were already 4-0 down in the series and the Aussies could sense a whitewash, so a dead rubber with hell of a lot to play for, in fact a very exciting Test unfolded, with incident on and off the pitch.

Day 1 – England won the toss, decided to bat, lost two early wickets, Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher resumed some control, with Butcher smashing a ton. England closed on 264-5. That’s enough about the cricket. My ticket for day one was for the infamous Sydney Hill area of the ground and on a hot day liquids had to be consumed. I did part-take in a few watered down lagers and so did a few hundred Aussies and English. So much so by the last session all you could see was beer snakes and a lot of jollity. This continued after the close all the way down to Sydney Harbour in the evening.

Day 2 – “Ticket for non-alcohol stand please!”  – As hangovers go, this one was quite horrendous, was dehydrated, head thumping, it was baking hot and the only seats available in the shade were in the non-alcohol stand, which was fine by me. Plenty of water and ice-cream and by mid afternoon I soon perked up. Thankfully I did as an enthralling days Test cricket developed. England battled their way to 362 all out. Andy Caddick then turned up the heat taking three Aussie wickets and there were only 50 on the board – England could smell blood.

However, the number five batsman was Steve Waugh – cometh the hour, cometh the man. Waugh dug in, and quietly started to consume runs. Two more wickets fell; the Aussies were on 150-5. In any normal Test side if five wickets are down you are usually into the tail or one wicket away from the tail, but not Australia as Adam Gilchrist walked to the wicket. These two started to compile runs, and compile them quickly. 

Waugh passed 10,000 Test runs, and as the day drew to a close a century beckoned for Waugh. The noise rose, every run for Waugh was cheered immensely. On his home ground, the Australian captain drove the final ball of the day from Richard Dawson to the cover boundary to complete his 29th Test hundred, equalling Sir Donald Bradman's record. The Aussies closed on 237-5, still behind but back in the game.

On leaving the ground that evening I had to pass the Sydney Hill, and there were a lot of drunken Aussies. All you could here was “Steve Waugh, Steve Waugh” being shouted to any Englishman who walked by, combined with the smell of BO, alcohol and urine, exiting the ground that day will be one I would never forget.

Day 3 – Saturday – Got a ticket from tout, something I wouldn’t usually do, as the demand to get in that day was very high especially from Aussie public. After purchasing my ticket, I noticed the date was for the previous days play. I grabbed the tout, asked for money back, a face value ticket for today or I would get the police involved. Funnily enough he agreed!

With all these Aussies cramming in to see Waugh push on, they were soon heartbroken as he was out in the second over of the day. Gilchrist shouldered on, he smashed the ball all round the park, he made 133 and the Aussies were all out for 363.

England’s response was quite remarkable, some backbone which was sorely missing in the first four Tests, they closed on 218-2, with Michael Vaughan unbeaten on 112. But my biggest memory of the day was this family of five sitting in the row behind. They all got ejected for being too drunk, all five of them, and did we give them a very English send off.

Day 4 – Back in the non-alcohol stand – No more touts, went to the ticket office and the only seats left were for you know where! Vaughan continued where he left off the previous day, and when he was out for 183, England were already 344 runs ahead. One thing I do remember about that innings was the six Vaughan hit into the crowd. This spectator caught the ball leaning over a safety rail, however the momentum took him over and he ended up in a heap at the bottom of these stairs – ouch! England declared on 452-9, setting the Aussies an unlikely 452 for victory, but anything could happen in this Test. The Aussies closed on 90-3.

Day 5 – Ladies Stand – Yep, in the Ladies Stand, the members enclosure, how? Well got a bit lucky. However the day belonged to Somerset’s Andy Caddick. He took five wickets on the day, including the dangerous Waugh, seven in the innings and 10 in the match, leading England to victory. Unknown to him at the time this would be his last Test for England – very harsh indeed.

After all that excitement, is now 5.27, time to get ready for skittles.