Bill and Ann Worrall in Australia

We interview stalwart volunteers Bill and Ann Worrall who have just spent a very a happy month with the Barmy Army in Oz. (Some people will do anything to get away from the Tuesday delivery slot!)

So you two – why did you want to travel half way round the world?

To watch the fourth and fifth test matches and see England retain the Ashes.

How was your journey?

Difficult – because of the snow, it took us 12 hours to do 50 miles on the M40 to get to Heathrow.  We then spent two days at Heathrow waiting for a flight and finally took off on the Monday before Christmas. 

How was Australia?

During our few days looking round Melbourne, surprise surprise, we met fellow shop volunteer Mandy Baker on the beach.

On Christmas Eve the real purpose of the trip started and we had a tour of the Cricket Ground.  Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest in the world with a seating capacity of 100,000.

Melbourne also has the largest tram network in the world  and we learnt to use them with only a small disaster which involved  breaking the camera.  (So not many pictures to accompany this article sorry)

The test match was really special with England on great form and we won in 3 and a half days. We had really good seats, just behind the bowlers arm.  The barmy army (England supporters) created a fab atmosphere singing lots of songs (mostly not reproducible on a respectable website) and we had loads of fun.   http://www.barmyarmy.com/home.php if you want to know more.

On New Year’s Eve we flew to Sydney, had a cruise round the harbour and watched the fireworks.  Ann got so excited she threw her shoe overboard (query Ann why was that a good idea?)

The test started on 3^rd January and we had 5 days of great English Cricket finishing with the first England Ashes win in Australia since 1987.  Pink day – in memory of Jane McGrath who died of breast cancer, was amazing with the whole stadium including the stumps decked out in pink.  1 million dollars was raised for Breast Cancer Charities.

We then did some tourism including visiting Bondi beach, the opera house and a trip up the Hawkesbury River.