Sporting double attractions mean Adelaide is buzzing

Adelaide has been a hub of sporting activity with Cricket’s Big Bash vying with the cycling razamatazz of the Tour Down Under for people’s attention. Sadly for the locals who packed into Adelaide Oval for cricket’s semi-final, the Strikers were unable to continue their winning ways, falling victim to a barnstorming undefeated 104 from Sydney Thunder batsman Usman Khawaja. The Australian Test player looked a cut above the rest as he relied on deft but firm strokes employed with perfect placement. The Twenty20 format will always take a back seat in my preferences to the more purist form of four and five-day cricket. But when the Strikers’ games regularly attract near full houses to the 50,000-capacity Adelaide Oval, you can’t hold anything against this hybrid mode of the game. The bumper crowds take me back when one-day cricket initially made an amazing impact on the English domestic scene. 1969 saw the first season of the newly formed John Player League which comprised of 40 overs for each side with all the games played on Sunday afternoons. The team that took an early stranglehold on the concept was Jack Bond’s Lancashire. And that season as a wide-eyed 13-year-old I experienced my first live viewing of the outfit that became my favourites. Astonishingly my first trip to the ‘proper’ Old Trafford with schoolmate Ian Astley and his dad was one of the closing Sunday League games of that campaign against the old enemy, Yorkshire. If Lancashire could beat their perennial rivals, that would be enough to seal the debut limited-over title. This they duly did in front of crowd that at the time was estimated to be almost 30,000. No-one knew for sure because such had been the interest and expectation that in those days of lessened and more innocent security, some fans had climbed the walls or gatecrashed by other means to witness the Red Rose title triumph. It was certainly a titanic introduction to my days of following my county. So I can appreciate what some of the youngsters are experiencing at Adelaide Oval amid the bumper crowds and frantic action. For many of them, it could also be the start of a long cricket-watching experience. Of course the mayhem of the one-day cricketing revolution in England is long gone and indeed the memories belong to another age. So who knows how long the Big Bash can maintain its staggering appeal in the modern world. And amid all that is a Lancashire connection in that Thursday’s match-winner Khawaja plied his trade in all formats at Old Trafford during the 2014 season. Also drawing enormous crowds has been the Tour Down Under. I must admit the rules and points scoring of cycling go a bit over my head but as a spectacle it takes some beating. My first taste of a major cycling event was the 2005 Tour De France after a flight to Zurich from London and thence onwards by car with Gabs, her mate Chris Page and her then beau. It was red wine and cheese all the way as the roadside crowd bayed the riders on their way – “Allez, Allez.” The Adelaide cycling festival loses nothing in comparison atmosphere-wise and the street parties at Unley and Norwood were both fun to attend. Sunday’s opening laps around Rymill Park saw me crammed into the Stag Hotel with a host of visitors from the UK and Sydney. These included Phil Poole, Andy and Val Selenschuk, Clive and Karen Charnley, Ian and Ruth Drummond, Dave and Sue Dobson plus Jim Nixon and Micky Markham all watching the cyclists zoom by. For many of the clan, it was their first visit to Adelaide, so what better way to round off a weekend jaunt. So impressive was the spectacle and the buzz around the city that some of them are already keen to organise return adventures. Adelaide has certainly come alive.

Twists and turns as England show spirit on South African adventure

England and South Africa are having a well-earned rest after two enthralling back-to-back Tests before resuming the action at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday. The live TV coverage fits in perfectly for me Adelaide time with the events unfolding just after tea time and going into the late evening. After England’s ruthless destruction job in the first Test victory in Durban then Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow going doolalee to set up a humongous platform in the Cape Town Test, it looked like it was gonna be unexpected merriment right though the series. But the stubborn Hashim Amla led a staunch fightback. In the end England were hanging on for dear life to prevent themselves sliding to an incredible defeat. Where we go from here is anybody’s guess because the South African have put themselves back in the picture for the final two Tests. The closing day had horrible echoes of Adelaide 2006 when England lost the unloseable Test after Shane Warne’s jiggery-pokery set off a batting debacle that proved impossible to reverse. That remains one of my greatest sporting traumas. At least they were able to stop the nosedive this time — just. I had feared the worst. Cape Town looks a magnificent venue to watch cricket. I have never taken in a South African trip. I have always wanted to but was put off some years ago by the words of former Sunday Times and Sunday Business colleague Graham Otway. Otters is a seasoned sports scribe and veteran of many overseas cricket tours. But he only had words of warning for me in terms of a gig to the new post-Apartheid nation. “Dave, it would not be your scene,” he said. “You can’t go wandering around the pubs of Joburg after a day’s play. You will either be robbed or someone will put a machete in your head. It’s dangerous.” That warning from Otters really put me off. I’m a passive pub crawler. I don’t do confrontations. As ex-Advertiser sage Pete O’Connor always says: “I won my last fight by 200 yards.” In previous years I had met up for an English Test match in Barbados with Otters. No problems there as the natives were some of the friendliest people I have ever me. “Hey, man we’re gonna have a big party,” said my taxi driver as I exited Bridgetown airport after plane load after plane load of thousands of English fans had made the same journey. Home advantage seems so crucial in modern Test so if England were to pull off a series victory, it would be something worth talking about. At least they are making a go of it, which is more than you can say for the West Indies who meekly turned down Australia’s offer of a contrived run chase to try to set up some kind of finish in the rain-ruined Sydney Test. With all the hullabaloo of the big Bash and the fuss over Chris Gayle’s smutty chit-chat dominating the airwaves, it would have been worth watching. The twists and turns of the Cape Town Test still proved to me that the five-day format delivers. I take a passing interest in the Big Bash but give me the real thing any day.