So the Ashes is underway...I think.

I think I preferred listening to the cricket when I couldn't hear it. It promised so much and working a night shift with a radio seemed a reasonable compromise but that was before I attempted to tune it in to long wave near industrial machinery and control panels. The rest of the evening was spent straining to catch the odd phrase and guessing the state of the match and I felt like Caldicott and Charters from "The Lady Vanishes" who were more concerned about finding out the cricket score than the events unfolding around them. This wasn't entirely successful and I initially thought Australia were batting when I heard mention of Shane Watson near the start of play so assumed the Aussie opener must be batting. Strangely some commentators came through clearer than others with Christopher Martin-Jenkins winning the audible cup, with Jim Maxwell a distant second, and it was during his spells of commentary that I managed to just about keep up along with a couple of updates from my managers phone. When he came down about an hour before the shift end with the full scorecard (we were four down at that point) it felt like a cheat but I lapped it up nonetheless. Anticipating uninterrupted coverage in my car as I drove home I assumed the state of play was pretty much the same as no loud cheers had broken through the white noise to announce a wicket but had not counted on Peter Siddle taking a hat-trick by the time I handed over, got changed and walked to my car making the drive back more sombre than I was hoping.
   No doubt tonight will be spent in a similar vein but the hope that our bowlers can put pressure on Australia will leave me wishing the commute home will be happier. The overall sense of anti climax after Strauss was out third ball on reflection is not as bad as Harmison's first ball on the last tour which set the tone for the whole series - epitomised by Justin Langer when he more or less pitied him. You know you're in for a tough time when Australia are disappointed in you knowing that you no longer offer a challenge. At least this time it was disappointing for England to lose an early wicket but not disastrous and we did recover fairly well before the hat-trick.