The players’ viewing balcony is right next to the press box at Headingley and it was fascinating to watch Michael Hussey’s high-energy pre-batting routine

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

The players’ viewing balcony is right next to the press box at Headingley and it was fascinating to watch Michael Hussey’s high-energy pre-batting routine. It can’t be much fun sitting next to him because just when everything goes quiet he springs up and runs on the spot, crunching his spikes on the cement.

After a burst of callisthenics and stretching he would sit back down and watch for a while until his mind told him he had been still for long enough. Cue more jumping, body twisting and focusing, a noisy set of exercises which continued until he was called to bat. Hussey is an intense player and his adrenal glands must work overtime with the stress shooting through his body.

He has been dismissed early a couple of times in this series and his desire to be alert for the first ball was clear. When Shane Watson was out he crackled down the steps and defended his opening delivery, appearing in control until he was lbw to a Stuart Broad inswinger from around the wicket. The dressing room is on the level below the balcony and once Hussey entered it there were no more trips upstairs.

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Cricketers at the football

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

The Australian squad split up last night, with half the team attending a civic reception in Leeds and five of them going to watch Altrincham FC play a Manchester United XI selection in Cheshire. Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, Stuart Clark, Michael Hussey and Shane Watson were the biggest names at the game, which they attended because Geoff Goodwin, the Conference club’s chairman, doubles as their bus driver in England.

Ponting was given 500 shares in the club for attending the friendly, matching the allocation handed out to Jason Gillespie and Adam Gilchrist four years ago. Manchester United’s reserves won 2-0 while the first team was preparing to play Valencia on Wednesday night.

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Clark on the coffee run

Leeds is just as rainy as Birmingham and would feel exactly the same if I hadn’t used the city as a second home during three years in England

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

Leeds is just as rainy as Birmingham and would feel exactly the same if I hadn’t used the city as a second home during three years in England. Arriving here is very calming because last night I was out for dinner and for half a minute actually didn’t know where I was. Before you start emailing WADA, it happens to me once every tour, it was early in the night and I was on my second drink. Still, as I looked at the restaurant wall I wasn’t sure whether I was in Brisbane, Barbados or Budapest.

Then someone started shouting “You all live in a convict colony” and I couldn’t be anywhere else but Birmingham. That song tops the West Midlands charts this week. It’s so hypnotic the city has been on theft watch every time someone in a yellow shirt goes near a loaf of bread. Anyway, my favourite lost moment occurred to a work mate who was so disoriented on a flight he had to ask the steward where the plane was going. So mine wasn’t bad at all.

Today our train went straight to Leeds, which is comfortable and familiar, grimier in some parts and unfamiliar in others. There’s Elland Road, which once staged Champions League matches, and over there is Majestyk nightclub, where the Leeds United players would sometimes find trouble.

Eight years ago I watched the hundreds of Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn at Headingley before escaping back to London to work on the final day, which was made famous by Mark Butcher. In between those centuries I’d debuted for a small club in West Yorkshire, doing nothing on the field, but enough off it to be invited back three or four times a year for more afternoons of fielding on molehills.

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Unlucky England fans

I was starting to get lost in the city centre this morning when a couple from Stoke pointed me the right way

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

I was starting to get lost in the city centre this morning when a couple from Stoke pointed me the right way. They were excited about seeing some play after particularly poor luck with the weather. Initially they had tickets to the first four days, but gave away their day-two seats to a friend. That was a bad choice, with seven Australian wickets going before lunch and England in charge throughout. On their other visits to Edgbaston they not only got soaked, but on the opening afternoon saw their team’s worst 30 overs of the match.

They haven’t had a lot of luck with their cricket-watching careers, which are pretty committed. A few years ago their Indian holiday took in a Mumbai Test until the dates were changed, leaving them to attend an ODI instead. Then in 2006-07 they joined thousands of England supporters flying into Melbourne for Christmas and the Boxing Day Test. The only problem on that trip was Australia had already won the first three games and the series.

They’re the sort of experiences that actually galvanises England fans. If the hosts win this series the couple will be off to Australia late next year as well.

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Rain, rain, go away - and don't come back

Tired of writing and thinking about rain

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

Tired of writing and thinking about rain. Not yet weary of all the soggy costumes. Today was an incredible fancy dress day at Edgbaston, starting with a gaggle of Dame Ednas in orange dresses, clutching a gladioli in one hand and a pint cup in the other. Classy. The weather was similar to Dame Edna’s home in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds, too. Some of the Fantatics were definitely homesick.

A royal group of Kings of Spain (or was it spin?) were hoping the rain would fall mainly on the plain, but instead it dropped heavily on the outfield, which was finally ruled until after an inspection at 2.30pm. A two-man horse and its jockey then stayed on for a long drink.

Pick-up games out the back were popular for soaked supporters. One involved a Fred Flintstone bowling to a member of the Barmy Army who seemed to have been imbibing all week, or maybe longer. Holding on to the wheelie-bin wickets with one hand, he wobbled like Phillip Hughes in the opening two Tests – and managed to stay a bit longer. Sadly, it was the most entertaining innings of the day.

The players escaped their dressing-room cards, darts and reading to have a hit in the indoor nets and a run in the gym. Brett Lee delivered a few balls, ranging between 50 and 80% of his capacity in his recovery from a rib injury. Hopefully he’s not the only one who gets a run outside on Sunday.

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A let down after Lord's

After a week in Cardiff and another at Lord’s, the first day in Edgbaston was a bit of a let down

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

After a week in Cardiff and another at Lord’s, the first day in Edgbaston was a bit of a let down. The early rain caused the biggest disappointment of the tour, delaying the start until 5pm, when the game began in brilliant sunshine. However, the setting is also a poor cousin to the previous two venues, a hotchpotch of stands without much charm, making it feel more like a lower division football stadium than an international cricket site.

South of Birmingham, where I’m staying, the hills roll and it is delightful middle England, but a few miles north the city starts and the flowers stop. When Edgbaston hosted the first Test of the series eight years ago it seemed much nicer – and not just because Australia won. I was camped in the crowd at square leg when Marcus Trescothick, who was delaying the innings defeat with 76, pulled a Brett Lee short ball to two seats away from me, where another Australian accepted a lunging take. The match finished early and the next venue was Wimbledon for the Rafter-Ivanisevic final. They were good days.

For the first six hours today it was much more subdued throughout the ground. Things livened up for a short time when the players stepped out, but got quieter with each boundary. In the stands there is usually an unofficial fancy dress contest being held, but there weren’t too many outstanding exhibits, probably due to the necessity for rain coats and umbrellas.

There were a handful of superheroes and a quartet of gods that weren’t capable of getting the clouds to blow away until well after lunch. For those not interested in beer or their mobiles during the break, there were highlights of the 2005 masterpiece created by these sides on the big screen. It wasn’t enough for some, who sat on the concrete concourse out the back reading novels or match programmes.

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Dangerous warm-ups

England are carrying a 13-man squad in Birmingham and those onlookers with sinister minds could wonder about the methods employed by some of the players during their warm-up games of football

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

England are carrying a 13-man squad in Birmingham and those onlookers with sinister minds could wonder about the methods employed by some of the players during their warm-up games of football. On Monday Ian Bell, just returned to first-choice status, twisted his ankle and on Tuesday Graeme Swann rolled around on the ground grabbing a foot before hobbling back into play (Can anyone remember where Monty Panesar was at the time?).

Neither player suffered enough to be in doubt for the game, but Edgbaston is a ground with a history of late setbacks. It was here that Glenn McGrath stepped on a ball before the second Test in 2005, an event which helped change the course of Ashes history.

Andrew Strauss will consider toning down the football challenges in the lead-up to the game, although there shouldn’t be too much danger of anyone going outside today. It’s pouring so much at the moment I fear the conservatory will start leaking.

"It wasn't ideal [on Monday], but we've played football for a long time and had no injuries,” Strauss said. “We just have to make sure we don't hack each other too much."

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War and a piece

Arthur Mailey, the Australian legspinner, journalist and cartoonist, called his biography 10 for 66 and All That for his best figures against Gloucestershire on the 1921 tour

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

Arthur Mailey, the Australian legspinner, journalist and cartoonist, called his biography 10 for 66 and All That for his best figures against Gloucestershire on the 1921 tour. Over the weekend we found ourselves on a day out in 1066 country, where there are constant oblique references for cricket anoraks, and also to some battles. So we drove through and enjoyed all that.

The Pevensey Castle in East Sussex dates back to the 1200s and despite some wear shows better defence than Monty Panesar and James Anderson on a final day in Cardiff. There are similarly attractive scenes not far away in the frighteningly-named town of Battle, the venue for some serious hostilities between the soldiers of William the Conqueror and the Saxon King Harold in the 11th century. The details make it impossible to believe the Ashes are ever referred to as war. Over in Eastbourne the beach is pebbled and too tough for cricket, but the weight of the raindrops was familiar from a couple of grounds over the past month.

A weekend garden party followed with Pimms and sandwiches topped with cucumber (seriously delicious), and now it’s off to Birmingham via an Andrew Strauss appearance at The Oval. Most of the main players have had a short break too, but it’s unlikely they spent time considering historical sites before their battles resume.

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An Australian win will end gloating texts

Dear British friends, it’s been so great to get all your texts since Monday

Peter English

25-Feb-2013

Dear British friends, it’s been so great to get all your texts since Monday. Buzz, buzz: England r gr8. Buzz, buzz: Ashes r ours. Buzz, buzz: Ur teams a dud. I haven’t heard from some of you for years. Four years, to be exact. It’s a fun week to be an Australian in England.

This sort of thing happened the last time I was here. Fortunately on that visit I didn’t last long enough to reach the 2005 Ashes experience, but I was around when Australia lost to Bangladesh in Cardiff. Another great day for receiving texts and emails.