England and queen rejoice

2005-09-12 20:55

London - At last, England can celebrate.

Capping a seven-week contest that gripped the nation, the English team reclaimed the Ashes - a 123-year-old cricket competition - by beating world champion Australia 2-1 in the five-match series.

Watched live on Monday by 24 000 cheering supporters at The Oval cricket ground in south London and millions more on television, England held off Australia on the final day to force a draw and win cricket's prized urn for the first time since the 1986-'87 series.

As celebrations broke out across the country, Queen Elizabeth II sent her congratulations to the England players for their "magnificent achievement of regaining the Ashes."

"This has been a truly memorable series and both sides can take credit for giving us all such a wonderfully exciting and entertaining summer of cricket at its best," she said.

A victory rally is planned for Trafalgar Square on Tuesday, when tens of thousands are expected to celebrate the country's biggest sporting achievement since England won soccer's World Cup in 1966 and the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

Has brought cricket alive

In a country where soccer dominates, cricket has been in decline in Britain in recent years.

But, this summer's compelling matches and victory over the usually invincible Australians has given the sport an injection of new life.

"It has brought cricket alive in Britain and even around the world," said David Folb, chairperson of the Lashings Cricket Club, a celebrity team.

"And, what's more, the players have been great sporting role models for kids. The Ashes victory is great for the sport."

The series has enthralled England and Australia all summer.

British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq have been watching the matches.

Florists have reported an upsurge in flower sales to husbands feeling guilty about watching cricket all day long.

At The Oval, fans clambered on to rooftops and hung off cherry pickers to catch a glimpse of the action.

Celebrities watched, too

Pubs screening the match were packed as English fans roared their team home and some of the thousands of Australians living in London drowned their sorrows.

Even the celebrities could not stay away.

Movie star Hugh Grant bit his nails as the English battled to defeat their favourite enemies on the fifth and final day of the fifth and final match of the series.

The final match has also been watched by Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Mick Jagger had televisions installed during his world tour to catch the action.

The Ashes refers to a mock obituary placed in the Sporting Times newspaper in 1882 after Australia upset all the odds to beat England, reading, "In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R I P. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

Boasted they would win 5-0

Every couple of years, England and Australia do battle for a tiny urn said to contain some wooden ashes, and the Australians, who excel at most sports, had not lost an Ashes series in 19 years.

The Aussies, who held a combined 29-9 margin of Test victories over England during the past 16 years, arrived boasting they would win this series 5-0.

Australia won the first match, but since then the English eclipsed their old foes with aggressive, enterprising cricket and were 2-1 up going into the last match, which began on Thursday.

Australia needed a victory to tie the series 2-2 and retain the Ashes.

England needed just a draw to take the series. In the end, England survived the tense final hours and the match ended in end-of-summer dusk.

England's star was a South Africa-born batsman, Kevin Pietersen, who scored 158 runs.

"It's an amazing feeling," England captain Michael Vaughan said. "It's been a rollercoaster of a summer.

'Believed in their own ability'

"At the beginning of the tournament, it was a real distant dream.

"It's now become reality because the lads have put a hell of a lot of hard work in, they believed in their own ability and they've known how to express themselves."

Kevin Johnson, a 45-year-old civil servant watching the final day's play in a London pub, said England was hungry for cricket success after the recent poor performances by the national soccer team, including a 1-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Northern Ireland.

"I think with the football team doing particularly badly it's nice to feel some success," he said. "It's a feel good factor. We've got a good young team. If they keep playing the way they've been playing, hopefully we'll be good for the long term."

Emma Wright, 28, agreed.

"I've been sitting in the office with the headphones on and listening on the internet," she said.

"Every time a wicket has been taken or we've hit a six I've been roaring, and so has the rest of the office.

"It's huge for the cricketers. A lot of the players were playing two to three years ago and they were being slated (criticised) by the English press and people.

"They've held it together, pulled through and they've had a fantastic series."

- SAPA