Notts stand firm over Barmy Army trumpeter ban

Nottinghamshire have declined a request from the Barmy Army to allow their trumpeter, Billy Cooper, to play at the fourth Investec Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.

Keen to recreate the atmosphere at Edgbaston - where some Australia players seemed rattled by a crowd rated the loudest Alastair Cook could remember - the Barmy Army wrote to the club asking them to reconsider their long-held ban on musical instruments inside the ground.

The club held firm, however, reminding the Barmy Army that Lord's also do not welcome musical instruments and that there would be no change of policy.

"It's disappointing," Paul Burnham, the co-founder of the Barmy Army told ESPNcricinfo. "We know how much the players value our support and we thought the atmosphere created at Edgbaston was wonderful.

"The players often talk about the support the crowd give them as being like an extra man and we're sorry we won't be able to provide that at Trent Bridge."

Billy Cooper - Billy The Trumpet as he is called in Barmy Army circles - attended every day of the Edgbaston Test. On the third day, 500 supporters who had purchased their tickets through the Barmy Army sat together in the middle of the Eric Hollies stand at Edgbaston and provided the foundations for some unusually loud singing and chanting described as "awesome" by Stuart Broad on Tuesday.

"What people sometimes don't understand," Burnham said, "is that Billy orchestrates a lot of the singing. People will still do it if he's not there. But it will be in pockets of 10 or 20 here and there. It will be chaotic and less helpful for the side and less fun for the spectators.

"But we respect Nottinghamshire's views and we respect the ground rules. We're still be there and we'll still be supporting the side. We'll keep asking them to reconsider, but we will continue to respect that it is their decision."

While the noise is not to everyone's taste - and Nottinghamshire's more traditional atmosphere has often scored very highly in spectator rating surveys - the England team continue to value it.

Ahead of the first Ashes Test of 2013, Andy Flower - the England coach at the time - pleaded with Nottinghamshire to change their stance. They refused to do so then and refuse to do so now.