More Ashes tickets available on November 1

Disappointed members of the "Australian Cricket Family" who missed out on Ashes tickets have been handed a glimmer of hope with the release of a small allocation on November 1. Despite most days of the series being officially "sold out", Cricket Australia has found 2000 spare tickets for Boxing Day, 900 for the opening day at the Gabba, 750 at Sydney and 150 for the WACA.

Similar amounts are on offer for the remainder of the days at all venues apart from Adelaide, which is full for the first four days. "These tickets have become available for a variety of reasons, but primarily as a result of 'holds' being put back into circulation," a Cricket Australia spokesman said. "A small portion of this allocation is made up of tickets that had been cancelled due to breaches of terms and conditions that applied to the original offer in June."

Members of the Australian Cricket Family will have the chance to buy a maximum of two tickets per transaction from November 1-3. The original sale - 300,000 seats went in two days - was hampered by severe internet and phone blockages, preventing many of those who registered for Cricket Australia's priority system from getting through. Tickets to the Sydney Test sold out in a couple of hours.

Many fans also complained about English supporters posing as locals to become "family members" and scalpers re-selling tickets at over-inflated prices, although more than 1000 were cancelled. The failure of the system forced James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, to apologise for the problems.