England vs Australia (Day 4, 1st Test) - Lords, London - Sunday 24th July 2005

Quite possibly the worst way to spend £54 in the world! We joined the game with England at 156/5 in the 4th innings, with 2 days play to go, and England needing about 250 to win. Rain was a good hope, and we got it for most of the day, meaning that all we saw for most of the day was this:

Now, a day at the cricket that is totally rained off means that you get a full refund on your (not cheap) ticket. Less than 10 overs play in a day also gives you a full refund, unless it because the game actually finishes. Between 10 and 25 overs gives you a half refund.

Having waited for 5 hours after the scheduled 10:30am start, play did eventually start at 3:45pm. Australia promptly took the remaining 5 England wickets in 10.1 overs, at the cost of just 24 England runs. Because the game finished, there was no refund. So, the only cricket we saw came after 5 hours of waiting in the rain, lasted for about 40 minutes, and cost us something like 88p per ball.

The Ashes are rubbish!!