Saturday just gone marked the eighth installment of an annual tradition for myself and some mates: the New Year’s Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Grand Old Girl has never looked better, with the magnificent Victor Trumper Stand now open on the site of the former Hill and Doug Walters Stands.
The SCG atmosphere was unbelievable in its former configuration, but with the new stand complete and filling the gap between the Clive Churchill and Bill O’Reilly stands beautifully, the feeling and excitement around the ground now is something different again.
The Barmy Army will love it come the next Ashes series.
Our day started with a recent addition to our day of ritual, that being the Big Breakfast at the well-renowned Una’s Cafe in Darlinghurst. While Una’s potato rosti is unchallenged, the same cannot be said for their marketing and signage department, with the front awning still proudly: “Celebrating 30 years in 2000.”
As with the value for money of the big breakfast, it’s an oversight we welcome every year.
Once again we found ourselves among the thousands flooding through Moore Park, and yet again we shook our heads at tales of the momentary loss of dignity that is the Paddington Gift, the daily early-morning ritual whereby anything goes as members race to secure their preferred seats.
We wonder if the status and prestige of being an SCG member is really worth it.
While in previous years we have almost religiously graced the Brewongle Stand, this year we found ourselves a little straighter in the Churchill Stand, and again we offered our annual thanks to the Ticketek fairies for offering up such an excellent view.
We’re yet to find a bad seat in the ground, although it must be said we deliberately avoid the concourses, and O’Reilly and Messenger stands (the latter known to us as The Sunburn Stand, because of its full exposure to the afternoon sun).
Shortly after taking up our seats, we were greeted by a group of yellow shirt-wearing tourists from Ballina (did they not get the memo about wearing pink?). We wondered amongst ourselves if these guys might have been displaced members of the old Hill, and they quickly confirmed our suspicions with three full shouts of mid-strength and no unbroken bladder seals after just fifty minutes.
As play got under way, we were hardly surprised by the obvious tentativeness of the Australian openers, but we feared the worst with South Africa getting through just twelve overs in the first hour.
Conversation logically got onto over rates and how to fix them, and I am still yet to find an answer for how Ricky Ponting was fined in Brisbane despite bowling New Zealand out. Either way, at twelve overs an hour, it was obvious that Graeme Smith was going to be out of pocket, and that we were in for a long day.
Fortunately for all parties, the rate improved as the day went on.
While Matthew Hayden showed glimpses – and like most at the ground, we wanted him to do well – it was again Simon Katich who surprised us as he raced into the forties at a strike rate he could only have dreamed of in a former life as a one-day opener.
We were astounded at how far across his crease he would shuffle, but with the exception of the ball that dismissed him, he would be in perfect position every time.
Ricky Ponting’s first-baller left us shocked, and when Michael Hussey followed some time later, as has been the case often this series, we hoped and dreamed that maybe, hopefully, we could scrape to 250.
Michael Clarke was starting to look the goods, but we couldn’t help but fear for Andrew McDonald’s safety after his helmet was knocked off by a Morne Morkel bouncer. It was a throwback to Bruce Laird in the early eighties, and we still don’t know how McDonald’s lid missed the stumps.
Watching the replay later Saturday night, there was one angle which showed perfectly the panic on McDonald’s face as the dislodged helmet came back into his view. You could just see him thinking “that shouldn’t be over there.”
Sometime later, Michael Clarke copped a Jaques Kallis delivery flush on the bottom of the protector, and immediately our eyes turned to Lara Bingle in the WAG’s box down to our left. “Not tonight Lara”, was the obvious conclusion.
37,901 people collectively groaned, and then laughed, as the replay is shown several times.
After Clarke and Brad Haddin accelerated late in the day, and with Mitchell Johnson looking rock-solid as usual, we had to declare the honours were even for Day One.
A stumps score of 6/267 was a pretty fair indication of the day.
The Ballina Tourists’ beer cup count topped 90, which is a lot of watered-down lager. It was no wonder the boys were a little tired and emotional. Go the hangovers!
Our day concluded with a cold frothy beverage of our own at the Exhibition Hotel near Central Station, and we were pretty content that our annual custom was once again successful.
The idea of future tenancy in the new Trumper Stand was floated, and due consideration will be granted over the coming year.
Photo by by Brett McKay
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