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Showing posts from January, 2018

The Middle-Aged Spectator considers cricket

8 February 1975 was a life-changing day for me. I had finished Year 12 the previous November, and was waiting for my Teaching study to begin. A friend suggested a group of us should go to the test match in Melbourne; unusually, this was a 6 th test in the series and the second of the series to be held at the MCG. With the Ashes already won (Australia had a 4-0 lead), there would be plenty of seats available. We four stayed in an apartment in the inner-city area which belonged to a brother or a friend of my friend (or something), there was a little bit of under-age drinking, and then in the morning we were off to join the queue to enter the Southern Stand. Australia’s first inning did not last the day (very disappointing in Test Cricket), and were it not for Ian Chappell (65) the English would have been batting much earlier. As it was, they only had to face a few overs before stumps. And this is where my first real memory of Test Cricket kicks in. Dennis Lillee, bowling fr