5th TEST SECOND DAY

TUESDAY 4th JANUARY

  Alan shared the upper berth sleeping quarters with me.  Robert's phone went off at 6.00am, and I eventually got up at 7.00am incurring Robert's extreme displeasure, but there agian he can be a surly Mr Grumpy in the mornings!  Eventually Robert got up and then ran us down to Eastwood station where we caught the fast train into Central.  Following the boy's instructions we found the special buses outside the station that ran the punters to the SCG.  Alan queued for the tickets and then we got into the queue for the bus.  Handily it dropped us off outside entrance "E" where there was a long queue for the baggage search.  I stuffed our lunchtime rolls, my camera, radio and sunglasses into mt jacket and pushed my way into a group of kids who were all togged up in their yellow uniforms, and went through to the ticket gates.  Today we were in the Bill O'Reilly stand whilst Len and Pat were on the concourse.

England performed very well reducing the Aussies to about 180-8 but the last two wickets put on another hundred runs, which was a bit disappointing from an English point of view, with Hilfenhaus unexpectedly smacking a six.   We met up with Len and Patrick again at lunchtime, and agreed to go for a drink after the game.

  At teatime there were races organised with representatives from various cricket clubs taking part.  The start was supervised by David Hasselhoff, former star of Baywatch and it was a complete shambles.  The circuit of the ground was abandoned after half the runners deemed it a false start and stopped, half continued but then half of them pulled out.  Two runners completed the circuit.  The race was declared null and void.  It was agreed to do a 50m sprint but that similarly ended in confusion and the whole event was roundly booed!

  England got off to a cracking start with Strauss murdering the Aussie bowlers and he hit 60 out of a total of 98 before Hilfenhaus got him with a corker.  Trott soon followed for a duck.  When debutant Beer came on to bowl Pietersen smacked his first ball for four.  We then had Beer's first wicket, or so we thought when Cook skied one to deep mid off and was caught.  However umpire Billy Bowden referred the case to the third umpire to check for a no ball, which it proved to be and Cook was not out.  Unfortunately Pietersen was tempted to hook a short ball from Johnson down Beer's throat so that by the close England had lost three wickets for 167.

  On the way from the ground Len pointed out the Korean War Memorial outside the SCG.

  We walked down Liverpool Street and found a pleasant hostelry (The Dolphin) where we found comfortable seating next to the bar.  From there we proceeded into town and went for a Chinese meal at a restaurant that Len and Pat had been to previously and had a very enjoyable nosh.  It was just across the road from Town Hall station from where we caught a train home.  Robert was asleep when we got back, but we managed to wake him up!

                                                (Alan looking slightly the worst for wear!).