“Rain ruins everyone’s fun at The Oval”
The Riverside Sessions
All rather appropriately, the rain of a late English summer toppled down around me on this late morning in 2023 and perfectly in tune with the chapter I read direct to camera from a book I’m immensely proud of. The chapter is entitled “Rain ruins everyone’s fun at The Oval” and was originally penned and published on a rain sodden Sunday 30th July 2023 as I made predictions that were wildly inaccurate and ever so pleasingly so.
Here is that chapter (40 of 43) and across pages 241–244 within my second of three self-published books on the grandest of all games entitled “The Spirit of Cricket” and here I am, in a favourite Pink Floyd t-shirt gooning and gurning for the camera as I lark around on the riverside of my spiritual home of Ironbridge and whilst the pitter-patter of raindrops make for quite the backdrop let alone the “Grand Old Lady” and oldest iron bridge in the entire known world.
I hope you enjoy.
Sunday 30th July 2023
“Rain ruins everyone’s fun at The Oval”
Ashes Day 23: The Oval, London
England 283 all out and 395 all out
Australia 295 all out and 135–0 (need 249 runs to win)
Alas the English rain has won another day!
With today starting, as it should, with a guard of honour for the retiring Stuart Broad, it rather ended with the Nottingham born fast bowler too but rather than live action of one of the game’s true lifetime greats smashing and grabbing his way to present day Ashes headlines, it was tales of derring-do from yesteryear and a career peaking with his unforgettable and still frankly astonishing 8–15 at Trent Bridge as England dismantled Australia for just 60 all out in that glorious Ashes Summer of 2015.
Listening back to the radio commentary once again, it never fails to send shivers of sporting delight down the spine as Jonathan Agnew excitedly exclaims his astonishment at THAT Ben Stokes catch or “It’s 5 wickets for Stuart Broad and we haven’t even had 40 minutes of play yet!” before wrapping up an hour or so of Ashes cricket never to be forgotten by intoning, again and again, that Nottingham’s own Stuart Broad had taken 8 (EIGHT) wickets for just 15 (FIFTEEN) runs, on his home ground, to skittle the Aussies almost single-handed.
This re-telling of a story that will bring back so many memories for the cricket fans among us who watched this live all those years ago came in addition to the dreams Sir Alistair Cook had two years after retirement of resurrecting his international career, a brilliantly light-hearted face-off once more between Glenn McGrath and his cricketing “bunny” Michael Atherton, tales of Stuart Broad’s Mum always having a “tingle” when watching her son play, Aussie captain Steve Waugh and his relentless approach to not only beating England but inflicting a “mental disintegration” upon them, and whilst the drizzle became light rain showers before the rain “hosed it down” with play ending for the day way too early, we had the travelling adventures of ex England international Isa Guha and her recollections of feeding crocodiles in an Australian rainforest.
We cricket fans love stories such as these and hold them dear to a sporting heart heavy with the admission that now the forecasted rain has arrived, it’s not stopping again any time soon. We also appreciate that cricket is a numbers game and that this grandest of all games can and will flutter on the breeze of sporting chance and that one team could well dominate for two thirds of the Test Match only to find themselves on the losing end of the result. That prospect now stares England full in the face ahead of tomorrow’s final day of the entire series and whisper it, I now have Australia as favourites to win it all.
Following the magnificent guard of honour afforded Stuart Broad, the stupendous boundary 6 he clubbed after England’s very own trumpeter serenaded a now 41 year old James Anderson with a hearty rendition of “Happy Birthday”, the day, shortened as it was by mother nature, belonged entirely to Australia. Chasing 384 to win, in itself the 8th highest 4th innings total ever to win a Test Match in the entire history of the game, openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner eased their way to 49–0 by the morning Drinks Break, 75–0 at Lunch and 135–0 mid-way through an afternoon session ended by that dastardly English rain. Both opening batsmen passed 50 in short order with Khawaja (69 not out) and Warner (58 not out) returning in the morning safe in the knowledge they gave zero chances for England to snag their prized wicket and, far more importantly, today is done, in the record books, and tomorrow they start again but not in search of a record breaking run chase for the ages, but simply 249 more runs to win.
I had England as heavy favourites entering today’s play and one of the primary reasons for my reversing of the favourites tag is the worry I’ve constantly had (but constantly been proven wrong!) in that they simply don’t have the firepower to skittle this Australian team and take 10 wickets in a day. Despite the atmosphere surrounding him Broad wasn’t at his sharpest, nor the birthday boy Jimmy Anderson and both Moeen Ali and very worryingly Mark Wood, looked lame with injury or protecting a building injury niggle. This leaves the workhorse that is Chris Woakes and the beautiful “Golden Arm” of Joe Root to bowl Australia all out. Absence one of those magical spells of bowling from either the retiring legend or his 41 year old mate early in the morning, I struggle to see how England now win this Test Match to level the series at 2–2.
A 2–1 defeat will be painful enough for England, but 3–1?
That would be a tough sporting pill to swallow.
I feel another Ashes story for the ages is to be written into history tomorrow and as always, I can’t wait for the cricketing battle to recommence in the morning.
“Rain ruins everyone’s fun at The Oval” can be found cavorting and dancing across pages 241 through 244 within my self-published book “The Spirit of Cricket” and here’s some promotional fluff for her literary stable mates awaiting your buying pleasure at Amazon. All of my books can also be read for free on Kindle should you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.