A brief look at who went on the trip and to how it came about.....
ForewordI had often thought of travelling abroad to see the England cricket team in action, I mean the years of me laying on the couch in the early hours of the winter months attempting to stay awake to watch England play in sunny climates, had finally led to me thinking 'what if I was actually there'.
The first interim enquiries regarding travelling abroad for such an event, had put me off, the general feeling was that it would cost me several thousand pounds to follow though with the idea of actually getting of my arse and bothering to go through with the process. This obviously put me off, but to be fair I was probably looking at the bigger picture, i.e. all of the tests where as in fact, packages might have been available for one or two tests.
Given that a few years ago, there used to not only be several 'rest' days between each test, at home and abroad, but in some cases a 'rest' day actually whilst the test was going on, it would have probably meant a lengthy stay out of the country even if I wanted to go out for just one or two tests.
However, in recent years, the International Cricket Council seem to want cricketers playing every day, all year round, which means the cricketing calendar is more congested than ever. Each test series between any of the test playing nations, appear to have at least two sets of tests that are back to back. Whilst this isn't very good for the players, it is mightily handy if you want to go abroad and catch a couple of tests.
Another good thing to come out of the last few years is the Barmy Army. For those of you reading this, wondering what the hell they are, must have had their eyes closed for the past decade or so. There is a terrible piece of journalism later in this diary that really lays into the Barmy Army and their antics, but hopefully by then you will form a good opinion of them to dismiss this article.
The Barmy Army were formed what seemed like many moons ago, but it is only in recent years that they really have come into their own. They are now much more a commercial organization, and now offer merchandize and such like, but what they also do is offer test packages that suit those that not only want to go out abroad for all the test matches in a series, but those who budget for one or two tests, i.e. people like you or me.
It was probably the success of the 2005 Ashes series which had really made me catch the bug of wanting to visit Australia, prior to this the thought of actually trying to sit through 5 days of test cricket, had never really appealed to me. 
The fact that the days I had attended in
And so the decision was made probably a couple of months after the triumph of 2005, about October time, that come the end of 2006 I would travel down to Australia and take in a couple of test matches.
What I suppose we didn't really plan on, was the fact that the series would be all over by the time we flew out, that I guess was the worst case scenario, but as we all know, it was over, so the trip definitely took on a more holiday feel. This was to mean, if the cricket was bad, then the pub or beach would be calling.
The purpose of this Diary is one of not to gloat and say eh 'look where I went' etc, but to share with you the fantastic memories such a trip can bring, hoping that one day you'd have read enough to think 'if he can do it, why can't I?'. Also from my own self interests, when you have paid a hell of lot money out on such an excursion, then you need some sort of notes to look back on in years to come and be able to say 'yeah it really was that good'.
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http://www.stagsmad.co.uk/AshesDiary.pdf
