IN PERSON AT THE MELBOURNE TEST

MONDAY 27th DECEMBER

  Not only did I wake Mark up last night, I seemingly kept him awake all night with my snoring.  The fact that I heard him snore a couple of times during the night would seem to belie his claim, but he won't have it.  I did however hear him get up and knock on Maureen's door and confess that he had got it all wrong and the Chelsea v Arsenal game wasn't taking place until a day later!  I got up at 8.00am and joy of joys luxuriated in a bath.  After breakfast Maureen ran Alan, Mark and myself to Mitcham station, stopping only to buy the morning papers. The Herald Sun had but the one headline on its front page;
                                            We Were
                                             AWFUL  (crossed out)
                                          HOPELESS  (crossed out)
                                        A DISGRACE
Mark has retained a copy to take home with him. 

  It's about a half hour journey to Richmond, a trip that cost us $10.50 each and then it is but a short walk to the ground.  There were some folk selling tickets with whom Mark spoke but they asked $60 per ticket and weren't willing to accept Mark's offer of $60 for two tickets!  We bought tickets at the ground for $45 each which gave us seats in the Olympic Stand on level 4 which is up in the gods.  It's a great view from up there, the only problem being that an icy blast fairly whistled round reducing us to shivering indolence.  Frequent trips for hot coffee failed to alleviate the chill.  Mark clad in a short sleeve Lacoste shirt had to confess that he was feeling the cold.  I had a tee shirt, long sleeved shirt, and light jacket, long trousers and sandals with no socks, and I couldn't stop shivering!  In between this cold snap Australia dismissed the two openers for barely a run or two.  We had arranged to meet Alan at the Vodaphone promotion site with its "Dunk A Pom" sideshow outside Gate 3, and I also sent a text to Len telling him that this is where we would be.  We all duly met up and arranged to go for a drink after the game tomorrow with Len and his nephew.

  After returning to our seats after lunch, Mark remarked that there were lots of empty seats at low level diametrically opposite us bathed in sunshine.  We worked our way round and found two empty seats in the second row.  According to Jonathan Agnew on the cricket radio commentary it was about 12 degrees in the ground, but we reckoned it was nearer 8 up in the gods.  However at ground level, with the sun shining in the afternoon it was blissfully warm, and Mark had to apply AfterSun upon our return to Maureen's.  His face was distinctly red. 

And that indeed must have been the colour on the Australian cricketers' faces as England ended the day 444-5 with Trott and Prior still in.  Prior had a lucky escape after being caught, he was walking off when umpire Alim Dar stopped him and checked with the third umpire to see if Johnson had bowled a no ball.  He had so Prior was reprieved!  Trott was struck a painful blow on the knee and limped for some time afterwards.  A lucky trip to the bookies on the ground saw Mark put a $10 bet on a trotting horse named Princess Fiona.  The name caught his eye because Maureen has a new dog named Princess.  It won at 14-1!

  We had a 10 minute wait for a train and Maureen was there to pick us up at Mitcham.  There were beers in the fridge upon our arrival back, and Jazz On A Summer's Day to watch on DVD, whilsy Alan BBQed sausages and burgers.  A fitting end to the day.