THE MELBOURNE TEST 3rd DAY

TUESDAY 28th DECEMBER

  Mark was up and away at 6.00am for the Chelsea v Arsenal game courtesy of a lift to the station from Maureen. I arose about 8.00am and had a coffee and toast whilst Maureen made up some rolls for our lunches, and then gave us a lift to Mitcham Station.  It's about a half an hour train journey to Richmond which is a station just a few hundred yards away from the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).  This time I got family enclosure tickets on level one for $31.  Mark came later and got a ticket for the same area I was in.  Chelsea had lost 3-1 to Arsenal, and the bar he had arranged to meet his pal, the Charles Dickens was closed.  Instead he went to the Casino to watch it and got befriended by an Arsenal supporter, whom he could not get rid of!  Not a good morning for the dear boy!  It was a much warmer day today, but I wasn't taking any chances and retained my long trousers and long sleeved shirt and also took a light jacket along in case!  England lost their last five wickets to be all out for 513.

  Our arrangemnts to meet up with Len and Patrick worked fine and we made further arrangements to go for a drink after the game.  Australia got off to a good start until Hughes was run out by a good throw from Trott, and thereafter wickets fell at regular intervals.  There seemed a prospect of an extra half hour being claimed by England to try and wrap a three day victory, with the injured Harris unlikely to bat with a stress fracture of the ankle.  In the event Haddin and Johnson held out and the match goes into a fourth day.

  We walked into town after the day's play and went to the Clocks bar for several rounds of libations.  We then walked over to a bar/restaurant that Mark had spotted earlier in the day, but the bouncer wouldn't let us in because one of us had shorts on.  We walked on a bit further up the road and found a pizza restaurant, where Mark negotiated free garlic bread all round if we came in.

 It turned out we were on the street where Len and Patrick had their hotel so it was a relatively short walk home for them, whilst we walked to Flinders Station to catch a train back to Mitcham.  Mark suggested going to the Mitcham Hotel for a drink on the way home with Maureen, but Alan was dead against it, coming out with such as excuses as, "it was too late, Maureen will be asleep, No! No! No!".  Mark phoned Maureen and asked her if she would like to go for a glass of wine and she readily concurred.  We were to ring her when the train got to Box Hill.  Unfortunately my phone had gone dead by then, Alan had forgotten his and Mark didn't have Maureen's number on his.  This left us in a bit of a quandry until I found I had my travel itinerary in my bag and thankfully it had Maureen's phone number on it, so we were able to contact base.  In the event the Mitcham looked closed so we went home and laid into a bottle of Alan's red wine (much to his disgust) which was very palatable.  We agreed we would go for a meal at the Mitcham tomorrow.