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Ashes - memories

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Okay we have been unfortunate to be in a period when Ashes havent been as exciting as its glorious past was with Australia streamrolling Englands series after series.

What are your memories on them though..

Mine :

A superb spell by Gillespie in England which destroyed the home team (dont remember it exactly)

The innings of Butcher in Australia with his career probably on the line
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
It's been a painful decade & a half to be an Englishman. But memories?

Well, I remember:

- the Oz press said of Gatt's 87 tourists that they "can't bat, can't bowl, can't field", but in the days before satellite telly I didn't see much of the action.

- SR Waugh not being dismissed until (IIRC) the third test in 89 & Alderman making Goochie his bunny.

- Warne's "century ball" to poor, tubby, befuddled Gatt in 93.

- &, more happily, that glorious first morning of the first test in 97 ( Oz 118 all out I think) & then Nass & Thorpey consolidating our position with great tons (a double in Nasser's case).
 

tooextracool

International Coach
too many bad memories really and most good ones were ruined by innumerable batting collapses, but my favorite memory other than the ones mentioned would be goughs hatrick at sydney
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
First Ashes I can clearly remember watching is 1993, so I'll try and give a memorable moment or two from each.

1993 series
-Warne's ball to Gatting.
-Australia's emergance as a really fantastic side for the first time in my mind. They were certainly good before this, but I just remember really clearly how absolutely they dominated this entire series, after losing in a great series to the West Indies just beforehand.

1994/95 series
-Warne's marathon effort at Brisbane to knock England over just in time.

1997 series
-England's fantastic start to the series.
-Gillespie's stunning spell at Headingly.
-The final test was undoubtedly a great one, but for whatever reason I don't really recall watching it.

1998/99 series
-Healy's rearguard stand with Waugh at Brisbane.
-Dean Headley destroying Australia rather unexpectedly in Melbourne.
-Slater's incredible knock in Sydney, and some great bowling from Macgill. Slater's innings is one of my favourite Ashes memories in fact, it was fantastic.

2001 series
-The amazing Headingly test, where McGrath demolished England and Ponting played two wonderful knocks, before Butcher hit his highest ever peak with his matchwinning hundred. The greatest Ashes test of my time.
-Langer and Hayden coming together for the first time to open the batting in the final test, and Warne taking 11 to finish the series.

2002/03 series
-The peak of Hayden's incredible run of form.
-Steve Waugh's century, of course.
-Michael Vaughan's fantastic efforts in a hopeless cause against the best Ashes side I have seen.
-Australia having everything set up to take an Ashes whitewash on the back of Waugh's century, only to have Vaughan and Caddick play brilliantly.
 

Swervy

International Captain
81- nuff said
82/83- the Melbourne test, the Tavare drop/Miller catch
85- Gower going crazy with the bat, Phillips getting caught off the boot
86/87- Bothams hundred
89- Alderman continually baffling the English batsmen, Steve Waugh
90/91- Tigermoth
93- Warney
94/95- over the hill Gooch
97- Hussain 200, Australia almost all out before lunch on the first day, McGrath and Gillespies bowling
99- Headleys 6 wickets
2001- Butchers 100, Steve waugh limping around
2003- Hussain putting Australia in
 

Swervy

International Captain
Pratyush said:
Please explain.


During one of the tour games, David Gower 'buzzed' the ground in a Tigermoth plane..he got a bit of a bollocking for it :D

from cricinfo: 'Gower fell out with Gooch famously and publicly on the 1990-91 tour of Australia after he and John Morris flew a pair of Tiger Moths over the ground where England were playing Queensland. '
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Swervy said:


During one of the tour games, David Gower 'buzzed' the ground in a Tigermoth plane..he got a bit of a bollocking for it :D

from cricinfo: 'Gower fell out with Gooch famously and publicly on the 1990-91 tour of Australia after he and John Morris flew a pair of Tiger Moths over the ground where England were playing Queensland. '
haha ya I read about it in a magazine. Not funny for Morris who had to face the wrath for it and was dropped or some thing if I am not mistaken.
 

superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
First for me was 93, went to the Third day of the first test, the day after Warne's ball, England were Eight down overnight and didn't add many, David Boon proceeded to bore the heck out of the crowd as the Aussies scored 231-3 by the end of the day, it was blazing hot though and i got sunburnt.

97 hmm,remember most of this one, the first test, remember Mcgrath's Lords and the fourth test where Aussies were in deep trouble and Thorpe dropped Elliot off Smith.
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
My first memory of Ashes goes back to the 1986-87 tour of Australia when Chris Broad and Bill Athey opened the innings for England and Broad cracking century after century in that series. I was supporting Australia but unfortunately they lost the series.
 

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
First real vivid memory is tuning into the radio and hearing that England had crumbled to 79 all out in the first Test in 2002-03. That's also my first real memory of cricket!

Yeah, I haven't followed it for long. :D
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Samuel_Vimes said:
First real vivid memory is tuning into the radio and hearing that England had crumbled to 79 all out in the first Test in 2002-03. That's also my first real memory of cricket!

Yeah, I haven't followed it for long. :D
Most vivid memory is of Ramprakash's "charge of the sh*te brigade" moment against Warney in 2001.

Hope it'll be erased sooner rather than later...
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Because Hussain didn't do the exact same thing in a ODI 2 and a half years previously...
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Pratyush said:
haha ya I read about it in a magazine. Not funny for Morris who had to face the wrath for it and was dropped or some thing if I am not mistaken.
Morris dropped? Morris had already played his last Test by then.
It was, though, the beginning of the end for Gower, which was a terrible, terrible shame and a complete waste that so typified the muddled thinking of the early '90s, riddled with personality-clashes such as Gooch-Gower.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Swervy said:
2003- Hussain putting Australia in
Which was the logical and sensible decision, given that Stephen Waugh would have done the exact same thing had he won the toss.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
FaaipDeOiad said:
2001 series
-The amazing Headingly test, where McGrath demolished England and Ponting played two wonderful knocks, before Butcher hit his highest ever peak with his matchwinning hundred. The greatest Ashes test of my time.
Greatest fourth-innings, sure, but greatest Test? Yes, McGrath bowled superlatively and Ponting rediscovered his touch (which he held to unbelievable proportions for the next 3 years) but that match would have been thoroughly unmemorable but for Butcher's unexpected match-turner.
I'd rate the Headley act of 1998\99 as a more thrilling Test - and certainly the game mentioned below had twists and turns, and individual thrills and spills, galore.
2002/03 series
-Australia having everything set up to take an Ashes whitewash on the back of Waugh's century, only to have Vaughan and Caddick play brilliantly.
Not really sure about that, we were always in the driving-seat from the moment Hussain won an easy toss (unlike The 'Gabba). It takes a gargantuan effort to win a Test batting second at The SCG with a team so severely weakened as Australia's was in that game.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Pratyush said:
Mine :

A superb spell by Gillespie in England which destroyed the home team (dont remember it exactly)

The innings of Butcher in Australia with his career probably on the line
What, the 4-chance 124 at The SCG? He'd had a poor last 8 Tests, sure, but his career was no way on the line.
The Gillespie spell might have been Headingley '97, it might have been Lord's or even, possibly, Trent Bridge, 2001. I'd bet on the Headingley one, though - even now probably Gillespie's greatest Test-match spell.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Pratyush said:
Okay we have been unfortunate to be in a period when Ashes havent been as exciting as its glorious past was with Australia streamrolling Englands series after series.

What are your memories on them though..
My best Ashes memory is also my first - Malcolm, Caddick and Gough slicing the Australians to 54-8 on the first morning of 1997, and though it was slightly soured by Warne's slogfest it perked-up with Hussain and Thorpe pasting it around. That was pretty much as good as it got that summer and, really, ever since.
There've been odd good memories, of course - most particularly one that hasn't been mentioned yet - Tudor dragging Caddick and Gough along into bucking the trend of wasting poor starts and slicing through the Australians to 102-7 at Trent Bridge in 2001. It had been so disappointing to see all the catches go down in the last 2 games (14 - fourteen - in 2 games) and have to watch all those runs being scored that had no right to be scored. This time, they were held. Sadly, again that was as good as it got. Gilchrist played his best knock of the series and instead of a healthy first-innings lead we had a deficit, and we just couldn't quite build a big enough target despite having a platform on a couple of occasions.
Butcher's knock of course was quite magical, especially given that I was certain he was building-up for something like that (I wasn't expecting an innings quite that good, but he just had that feel that he was waiting to burst through almost every time he came to the crease), but it was the only day in the entire series where we were on top pretty much throughout.
Likewise, the SCG match of 2002\03 had a fantastic creaking pendulum, something I always love to see in cricket. Even the second day of the match at The 'Gabba was good, as Caddick and White cut through the Australian middle-order with surprising skill. We were already out of the game, of course, and the villification Hussain got for that decision at the toss has always burned in me as one of the gravest injustices of my time.
And while it's not The Ashes, my favourite England-Australia ODI apart from the recent Champions Trophy game was the one at Bristol in 2001. The following game had some breathtaking second-innings bowling, too, but it was slightly harder to appreciate the awesome quality because it was a little depressingly familiar.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Richard said:
Because Hussain didn't do the exact same thing in a ODI 2 and a half years previously...
An ODI, where the key is to score runs compared with battling to save a match when you charge down the wicket for no reason.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Surprise surprise, someone has good memories and someone else decides to make irrelevant points about it.
 

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