The hills are alive with the sound of victory

Today was apparently a great day for England, as we regained The Ashes from Austria after a series of cricket matches. For anyone who doesn't know, I think the story goes that a long time ago, England played Austria at cricket and one side lost and for some reason burnt the cricket stumps and kept the ashes in an urn. Rather than then let that be the end of it, the ashes became The Ashes and the two countries have been competing to get them back from each other ever since.

Now, I personally wouldn't be that bothered about taking home an urn with some burnt wood in it but that's perhaps why I don't play much sport.

I think we play for The Ashes every few years or so. Not every year, but more regularly than The Olympics. England has entirely failed to win every time since the mid-eighties, which is a bit rubbish given that Austria is renowned for its hills and mountains. These are highly unsuitable environments for practicing cricket, a sport which delights in flat fields. But somehow they have kept on winning (maybe it was the lederhosen)... until this year.

The Test Series (see, I know technical cricket terms!) comprised five matches. After the first four we'd won two, lost one and drawn one, which meant we needed only a draw today to regain The Ashes from the edelweiss-lovers. Here is a summary of the most recent match: They played cricket for five days. On the last day they played cricket until teatime, then the sun went in and they called it a draw. I just don't understand how people can think cricket isn't an interesting game.

So anyway, well done to England and bad luck to Austria. Let this be a lesson to you for giving Hitler and The Sound of Music to the world.