John Winn has already reported the sad death of Mick Carney. I only knew him briefly but Mick was a larger than life character who always enlivened our visits to Riverside. As a regular reader of our blogs he was always ready with a comment, usually complimentary, whenever I met him. Added to that he was a passionate and long suffering supporter of Sunderland football club, as my own grandad was for many years, so I always felt we had something in common. He will be sadly missed.
The Test Match currently taking place at the WACA in Perth will be the last match played at this famous ground which I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions, having the good fortune of a cousin who lives just south of this most pleasant of cities. The TV pictures have shown the vast new all sports stadium which has been built just across the river at Burswood, again not my idea of a proper cricket ground.
My first visit was in February,1991 when England played the 5th Test of the series at Perth after I had seen the drawn game in Adelaide. I remember stepping off the plane on arrival in Perth into the overpowering heat which hit us in the face. It was the hottest temperature for many years but fortunately returned to normal a day later. My cousin immediately drove us to his home, in his air conditioned car, and deposited us in his swimming pool with a bottle of beer to cool us down!
The approach to the ground through the park next door was very attractive and everything about the ground, including the huge floodlight pylons, seemed so different from the grounds in England. The large grass bank in front of the old scoreboard was a wonderful place to watch the game from and the museum under the stands and the welcome from the Aussie officials for English fans was excellent. This was just before the growth of the Barmy Army which blighted the tour four years later with their inane chanting.
Mark Waugh had made his debut at Adelaide and scored 138 in the first innings. David Boon also scored a century in the second innings but England batted out for a draw on 335-5 on the last day with a hundred from Gooch and good scores from Atherton and Alan Lamb. Here at Perth England were not so fortunate with Craig McDermott destroying their first innings by taking 8-97, helped by the afternoon Freemantle Doctor wind. Lamb made 91 and Robin Smith 58 but from 212-3 England collapsed to 244 all out - a familiar story.
England's opening bowlers Devon Malcolm and Gladstone Small made a good start but Australia's strength in depth brought runs from the middle order with Boon 64, Matthews 60 not out and Healy 42 giving them a total of 307. England's second innings was even more disastrous than the first and they were all out for just 182 only Robin Smith 42 and Phil Newport of Worcester, who had been flown out as a late replacement, 40 not out, making any runs at all. The three Aussie pace bowlers McDermott, Alderman and Hughes did all the damage.
So the match finished on day four when Australia knocked of the 120 runs to win with only one wicket down to win by nine wickets. This gave us some extra time to see the sights and the whole city seemed so attractive, especially the wonderful Kings Park, together with the surrounding areas like Freemantle and Rottnest Island. I was still working at this time but was very attracted to the lifestyle of Western Australian and could quite have fancied going to live there.
Finally best wishes for Christmas to all our readers helped by this card from Australia just received from a friend recently returned from the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests.
No comments:
Post a Comment