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We arrived in Sydney on New Years Eve morning for what would be the final leg of our cricket tour. Tired, hungover and accomodationless our first task was to try and find a bed for the next two nights, which was no easy task. At this point its fair to say that I was not particularly up for new years celebrations. After two hours of bartering, phoning and arguing with eachother, nick and i finally found somewhere and after a bit of a recharge, we made our way down to the harbour in the afternoon, with renewed vigour. We were pretty lucky in that Scott was staying with some family in an apartment overlooking the harbour, right next to Sydney Harbour Bridge, in an absolutely fantastic location. So we managed to gatecrash the party and secured a great spot for the fireworks. Having not ventured into the centre of London for new years since Millenium I have little basis of comparison but I cannot believe there are many better places to spend new years than Sydney Harbour, if any. The fireworks at 9pm and at midnight are legendary and attract something like 2 million people each year! Thats 10% of Australia! Unfortunately the photos really dont do the whole night justice but it was simply an amzing way to spend New Years Eve.
We only had a day before the start of the 5th and final test and our last little bit of punishment. So with waning enthusiasm for all things cricket but armed with the knowledge that whatever happened it had to be better than Melbourne we made our way to the SCG. It was a great way to finish the tour from a cricket point of view, a ground steeped in history, if not as picturesque as Adelaide. Although we experienced another disappointment cricket wise and the ignominy of a 5-0 whitewash, it was of course taken in typically good humour with the Barmy Army more than happy to revel in the praise heaped upon them by the Australian public and team. We got to see three legends bow out of the game and watch glenn mcgrath and shane warne bowl their final balls in test cricket, so again more great history to have seen, if for all the wrong reasons. By the time the cricket had finished and the customary post test post mortem/piss-up began on the 5th January I had already fallen in love with this amazing city. Its got such an international feel to it and although its very cheesy and postcardy the area around the harbour and opera house is quite a sight. We got a first hand experience of the harbour with the end of tour boat party on the 6th which should have been a highly sophisticated evening cruising one of the worlds great harbours. Predictably it turned into an all singing all dancing drinking affair, appropriately catered as the boat stopped off to collect 400 pizza hut boxes half way through. Classy...
The only other cricket to mention (and at last non cricket fans, the final bits i'll write about on my travels) was the Barmy Army cricket game vs Sisco in which Scott, Nick and I played. We fully justified our batting positions of 13, 14 and 15 (yeah it wasn't that strictly umpired) with a combined score of 6. I was more than happy with my 3 which included a glorious cover drive before being bowled by a nippy little 14 year old. 2 months of Ashes defeats finally came to an end for us and so many of the Barmy Army on a warm night at the SCG, with the 20:20 game. Of course it was somewhat less serious than the test series but it was a new experience for so many people and a really fun atmosphere, much more so than in the last two tests! Ready to party into the night and claim true ownership of the Ashes if england won, we predictably could not do so, being beaten just as convincingly as ever before. It marked the end of our cricket tour and england signed off in true style, very much in keeping with the 2 preceeding months....
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