Melbourne Boxing Day Test Trip - Day 2

It was an early morning rise for all, but at least some of us managed five hours sleep, as apart from the two or so that our weary travellers faced.
After a cup of coffee, and some having some cereal (not me - breakfast at the G!) it was time to don the day's uniform and head off for the cricket.

Jason's shirt design for Day 1

The Cavaliers are coming to the M.C.G

Rocket makes the first of a dozen trips to the ATMs of Melbourne

Rowing Clubs along the Yarra

On our way to the G

I hadn't been to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for 15 years or so, back when there was the old stands and the rickety wooden seating. So that first glimpse of the coliseum it has become when I first walked into the stadium was quite amazing. So much for the suburban cricket ground it had been in 1877 when the first ever Test match was played. It now truly is an amazing ground.

We had a little bit of a wander, and even though the seats Jason had procured for us were stunning - second level of the very right hand edge of the Great Southern Stand, up against the railing - Rocket and I managed to find a place that perhaps, should he feel the need, could perhaps gain for us on our next visit?...

Breakfast of Champions. Three pies at the M.C.G

Of course, this is Melbourne, and although the forecast was for a pleasant 22 degrees, well, sitting in the stands in the shadow of the great stadium it was anything but that at 9.30am. In fact, it was bloody freezing! Isn't this supposed to be summer? However, those of us who have been to Melbourne before at least came prepared for this eventuality. Rocket dubbed me "The Experienced Melbourne Traveller" as he sat there in his polo shirt and shorts, while the three burning hot pies helped to warm my insides as well.

The number of people on the field during the preliminaries is quite amazing. Both sides warming up with full support crews involved, all the TV and radio crews and commentators, as well as those providing "entertainment" on the big screen. How more people don't get hit by stray cricket balls and the like is beyond me.

When play did start for the day, with England 6/226, it was with a bang. Ryan Harris' first over was negotiated by Kevin Pietersen, but it was the second over of the day that brought the crowd to life. Mitchell Johnson's first ball was a screamer. All night, you can imagine that Tim Bresnan would have been playing over in his mind how he was going to approach this innings. then he had taken about forty minutes of nets and throwdowns in preparation for his innings. And then, first ball, from out of nowhere, Mitch delivers him a thunderbolt as he lent forward on his front foot, finding a 145kph bouncer coming straight at his head. He barely had time to get his bat and gloves in front of his face before the ball careered into them, popping to George Bailey at short leg. A rip-snorter, an impossible ball to try and handle first up. It was awesome, one of the best balls I've seen at a cricket ground.
Stuart Broad entered to a cacophony of boos that echoed all around the ground. His leg bye first ball brought Pietersen back on strike, and he obviously didn't want to have anything to do with the bullets Mitch was sending down. First ball he backed away, and tried to pull him over mid-wicket only to miss. The crowd began to give him some, insinuating he didn't want to be out there. Next ball went down leg, but the next was a perfectly pitched ball that swung back into the stumps. KP inexplicably almost charged, and tried to swing it over mid-wicket again, this time losing the top of middle stump in the process, at real pace. The crowd erupted. It was magnificent theatre, and a brilliant way to start the day.

Once England was dismissed, we were hoping for a Dave Warner Show, but unfortunately this was not to come. In fact, it turned out to be England's day, as apart from Chris Rogers gritty 61 the Australians collapsed to be 9/169 at stumps, almost 100 behind England's first innings. The afternoon's entertainment came more from the crowd below us in the Aussie Army section (where we would be seated for the next two day's play). Plenty of drinking and chanting going on, with firstly gentlemen encouraged by the crowd to "SKOLL! SKOLL! SKOLL!", and greeted by cheers when it was done, and jeers when it was not. Before long however, this was not enough, and they were now encouraged to "DO THE TRAY! DO THE TRAY!", meaning downing four drinks one after the other. This inevitably led to the participant being escorted from the venue. Soon enough, the crowd began to get rowdier as the cricket began to tail off, and even closing down the bars for the last session didn't stop it. A few fights broke out, and the constructors of plastic up snakes also found their way to an early shower. By the end of play, we estimated that a hundred people had to have been ejected. Guess it is fortunate in this way that they only serve mid-strength alcohol. this probably also saved the three Poms who were sitting next to us all day, as their vigor grew with each passing wicket from Australia. That's all fine, but when they started shouting out about Australians not being walkers (when it was simply Ryan Harris being asked to wait by the umpires to see if it was a no ball), or Australians using reviews when they KNEW they were out (when George Bailey was sure he hadn't hit it, and Hot Spot showed no edge, and Snicko the tiniest noise that quite honestly could have been anything), or just general carry-on for the last hour... well... let's just say that I kept my mouth firmly shut (most of the time), but if we hadn't been drinking mid-strength beer there could have been at least a couple of Poms flying over the second tier of the stand.

We walked back to our room with the masses of over 78,000 people, to find our air conditioning on five degrees. Now - this situation could have been easily fixed by resetting the air conditioning unit. However, we instead proceeded to spend the next hour in a frigid atmosphere (from my point of view, it was refreshing). However, some of our elder statesmen (well, one) decided that it was just a little too cold to bear.

Having taken in an hour of the evening's BBL match, we finally got ourselves together and headed out for dinner. Jason was adamant that we had to go to a restaurant up on Lygon Street, which was a hefty walk away. Of course, this didn't account for the fact that, once again, our fearless leader managed to get us lost, and the trip took twice as long as it probably had to. I thought it was pretty funny. Daniel was "literally dying of hunger", Ross found he was desperate to take a leak, and eventually headed off into a road construction hut on the side of the road to complete his business, and Sam was just over the walking aspect. Might have taken us an hour, but it was pretty amusing from my side.

We finally fell into the place that Jason just HAD to get us to. Inside... well, to probably everyone's disbelief, we ran into the Timbs' and Thistlethwaite clans, just finishing up their own dinner. Who would have thought - travel a thousand kilometres, and from a couple of thousand restaurants in Melbourne we just happen to choose the same place. Funny.
The walk was worth it. We got cheap specials, and I had the black angus rump again (this time a 400g instead of 300g) which was spectacular. Dan followed me, but also partook in the risotto for starter. Despite his "literally dying of hunger" monotone on the way, he was unable to get more than halfway through his main after this.

 

While Rocket and Sam chose a taxi to return to the room, the elder statesmen decided to stroll back, one that took a considerably shorter space of time that the walk on the way up. By the time we arrived it was closing in on midnight, and everyone decided to turn in, as Ross was leaving our troop early for his plane trip home. Still, I found Tin Cup playing on the TV, and couldn't resist watching it again, and thus sacrificed the extra hour's sleep I may have gotten in the process.