The 5th, and final, Test match (a game that lasts 5 days max) of cricket's The Ashes starts on Thursday between England and Australia. England haven't won the Ashes since 1987, but are 2-1 ahead in this Ashes Series with one game to go (the 3rd Test was a tie). Which means that England only need to tie against Australia in the 5th Test to win the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.

Not surprisingly, England's no2 sport, after soccer, has become our most popular sport for the last 2 months or so!.



6 September 2005

BRING ME MY BOW(LERS) OF BURNING GOLD

ASHES COUNTDOWN: England v Australia, 2 days to go SKIPPER BACKS A CAMPAIGN TO LIFT THE OVAL CROWD WITH ROUSING CHORUS OF JERUSALEM

Mike Walters Cricket Correspondent

MICHAEL VAUGHAN last night threw his weight behind a campaign for a nationwide recital of English cricket's Jerusalem anthem to spur his men to Ashes glory.

At 10.25am on Thursday, five minutes before start of play at The Brit Oval, England skipper Vaughan wants the whole country to sing for victory.

William Blake's hymn was adopted by Lord's bosses two years ago in an effort to stir patriotic fervour among England fans along the lines of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot at Twickenham rugby internationals.

Vaughan, who at the final npower Test could become the first England captain to win the Ashes since Mike Gatting in 1986-7, said: "The backing of the country is like having a 12th player on the field, and the thought of the whole country singing a hymn as emotive as Jerusalem will get the boys stirred up as we take the field."

The singing will be set to pictures on a giant screen provided by TV producers Sunset and Vine, and Barmy Army volunteers will distribute 34,000 songsheets with the lyrics.

Barmy Army general Paul Burnham, who campaigned for two years to adopt Jerusalem at home Tests, said last night: "It's a great idea. We want office workers, shoppers, civil servants, everyone, to join in. The whole country will be behind Vaughanie and the boys on Thursday, so what better way to show it than singing Jerusalem at 10.25 followed by the Australian national anthem - God Save Your Gracious Queen?

"An entire nation ground to a halt for a total eclipse of the sun a few years ago. England winning the Ashes comes round about as often as one of those, so let's hear it for your cricket team."


England's singalong ideas have not always won universal approval. Former coach David Lloyd was ridiculed, mainly by Aussies, for putting `together a tape of Winston Churchill speeches, Land of Hope and Glory and M People's pop hit Search For The Hero.

mirror.co.uk

   

I love winding the Aussies up before a big game.


6 September 2005

THERE'S NO FEELING LIKE LOOKING INTO THE EYES OF THE AUSSIE BULLIES AND SEEING THEIR FEAR - SAYS DEVON MALCOLM, FORMER ENGLAND PLAYER.

AN ASHES EXCLUSIVE 2 days to go until the Oval Test

Mike Walters

DEVON MALCOLM always enjoyed making the Aussies hop around like their beloved Skippy in a bushfire.

And with 48 hours to go before England's date with Ashes destiny on the ground where he invariably produced his quickest spells, Big Dev acclaimed Michael Vaughan's men for standing up to the Aussie bully boys.

Malcolm, England's fastest bowler of the past 30 years, is backing Freddie Flintoff and Steve Harmison to bring home the urn and warned Australia's batsmen they were cruising for a bruising in the final npower Test.

"Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see Flintoff and Harmison give the Aussies a hard time at The Oval and for England to clinch the Ashes on the back of it," said Malcolm last night.

"The Oval is an 'effort' pitch - those prepared to hit the deck hard will extract the most rewards - and I'm looking forward to seeing those two guys forcing the Aussies on the back foot.

"Two years ago, when Harmy's place was in some doubt, I went up to him on the Saturday night of the Oval Test against South Africa and told him, 'You're going to take four wickets and win us the match, go get 'em, man' - and he did.

"In many ways, that game was the making of Harmison as an international bowler because it was the launch-pad for him to go on and become No.1 in the world.


"I hope he enjoys going back to The Oval as much as I always did, even if I was often being recalled to help save a series if England were 2-1 down or to stop the Aussies winning 5-0.


"It would almost make up for all those years of pain and frustration I went through as a player in the Ashes if our boys could finish the job this week.


"I made my Test debut against Australia in 1989 and got Steve Waugh out for a duck, a rare treat for England that summer, but I still finished with figures of 1-166.


"Our payback has been a long time coming, but we have the tools to finish the job and it's made a change to see the Aussies doing all the worrying this summer.


"There's no better feeling than looking into the eyes of a bully and seeing fear - and all I see when I look at the Australian batsmen now is fear. They're panicking because England have four fast bowlers who are hunting as a pack and they're not backing down.


"England's attitude has been fantastic, going right back to that one-day game at Edgbaston where Simon Jones hit Matthew Hayden while trying to thrown down the stumps. I loved it when Hayden came marching down the pitch, puffing out his chest, and was confronted by all 5ft 9in of Paul Collingwood as he backed up Jones.


"It's amazing what you can achieve when you stand up to bullies, and that's why I always tried to get in the Australians' faces when I played against them."


Malcolm was arguably the unluckiest fast bowler of his generation, going back to the day he was introduced as Malcolm Devon by former chairman of selectors Ted Dexter. In fairness to Lord Ted Malcolm proved an inspired wild card, in more senses than one, mixing scattergun accuracy with scintillating pace in an eight-year Test career which yielded 128 wickets in 40 matches.


Malcolm often reserved his most explosive spells for Kennington, and ex-England captain Mike Atherton once observed Steve Waugh "almost wet himself" when the hostility bordered on life-threatening. "The Oval is where I produced probably my fastest spell for England. Not when I took 9-57 against South Africa in 1994, but 12 months earlier when we beat Australia," said Malcolm.


"My Test career had peaks and troughs, but I enjoyed making Mark Taylor and Michael Slater hop around on a quick, bouncy pitch. We were 4-0 down and I was so fired-up to put an end to the suffering I went out and tried to blow them away and worked up a serious pace.


"It's nice to see fear in their eyes again, and it would be nice to see the Aussies get another real working-over at The Oval, but it's equally important our batsmen put big runs on the board.


"If England can score 450 or 500 in the first innings, and virtually bat Australia out of the game, we can unleash Harmison and Flintoff again and let them have some chin music."