Congratulations to England and all who sail in her.

awesome! a perfect end for me! the better team won, and Warne got another amazing haul. something intelligble? I shall struggle to do that for some time now!:)
Congratulations! Party hard chaps!

KP hit more sixes than Botham did at Headingley in 1981… a positively Caribbean innings.

Two quotes from the post-match interviews…

Flintoff: “the thing about this team is - whenever there’s a job to be done, someone stands up and does it.”

Duncan Fletcher: “if you want to keep on winning, you’ve got to keep on improving.”

Congratulations Will, and all English supporters here. For me (and some of us ‘neutal’ cricket lovers here) it was one of the most exciting and exhausting series. It also made me realise, alas too late, how great Warne really is(yeah we Indians have a tendency of underestimating him:)…but never mind, I think atleast realised in time the other great hero of our times, Freddie.

The most enduring image of the series for me would be Freddie…steaming away, sometimes alone, till the end of the day 5. And Warne…almost demanding a wicket through sheer will-power, sometimes, ironically, in the beginning of day 1!

Finally calmed down enough to think straight. This has to be one of the top 5 days of my life. The script was almost written from the beginning of the summer, of course it was KP who was going to play the winning innings… Even Shane Warne knew it.
Great series, the best. Feels like an honour to have watched it. What an England team, every single player doing their bit. And against a fantastic Aussie team who were (almost!) just as awesome.
Right, I’m off out. This has to be celebrated properly!

Wow.

I probably didn’t see or hear as much as the TV watchers today, but I certainly felt the atmosphere.

I reckon my alcohol drinking correlated with the progression of England’s position, so I was much happier as time went by.

I reckon Kevin Pietersen being dropped early on did as much for his attitude as anything. He was given a life, he was confident enough to think he wasn’t going to offer another chance. One of the best innings I’ll see - an Ashes saver, half of England’s runs, he knocked the Aussies’ confidence. You could tell, from the Aussies, not long after lunch, that if they weren’t going to get Pietersen out early on, they weren’t going to win.

The only disappointment. The umps had to stick to their previous rulings, that they’d offer the light to the Aussies if it got dark (I was still squinting from the glint of the sun through the clouds). Not surprised they took it. So now we know the ruling - “dangerous”, refers to the players’ averages. But no-one knew for sure until the big screens suddenly displayed “Congratulations to England”. I’d preferred that at least some of the players were on the pitch as it had been announced, as it was, it was a bit of an anti-climax

Well, as far as it goes.

In case you couldn’t see the action, my screen captures from today’s tv broadcast are now up on my blog: http://randomcricketthoughts.blogspot.com/

I’m hoping this will persuade my mate to pay up!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/old-allegiances-die-hard/2005/09/13/1126377300685.html

my god….. your all poms.
get over yourselves. its only the ashes, the aussies will kick your asses when they come over here. ill say it again GET OVER YOUR SELVES!!!!!

Congratulations England, commiserations Australia. the thought of sleep and normality makes me melancholic, the last time a sporting event left me feeling so drained was the Sydney olympics, you (in England)have that to look forward too.
When sport is done well, it is a unifier and an inspiration, and the evolution of cricket to this it’s finest hour is a tribute both to Australian re-making of the game, and Englands ability to adapt and modify there own game to meet the challenge, sure Australia may be on their way down but who was brave enough to say that before the series, my view is England have wrestled them down.
There are still lots of problems in World Cricket, on display in this series were the vast sums of money England has poured into re-gaining the Ashes, it would be a shame if only the best resourced teams were able to compete at the highest level!It is certainly heading that way.
Putting that and other concerns aside, we should all savour the moment. Thanks Will for giving us this avenue for expression, and to everyone(even Bilby) thanks for your thoughts who knows we may may have a Beer together in Sydney 07.
Good health and remember “it is no sin to waver in the corridor of uncertainty”