Ashes to Ashes....

25th of November is the date of the 1st Ashes test of 2010 and I'm positively brimming with excitement. Despite our resurgent form and the lack of the same coming from the Australian team I think we have a great chance of keeping hold of that little urn.

I still wouldn't have us as favourites because in their own backyard Australia are a pretty fearsome opponent and they need no more incentive to win than simply beating the old enemy.

The Australian psyche is so much different from the English mentality. Every Australian will think that whatever competition they enter they will win. Even during the football (soccer) world cup every single Aussie thought that their team could win that cup whereas it was pretty obvious right from the start that English hopes were fading fast....I was surprised they even got out the group to be honest and I was tempted several months before the start of the competition to have a bet on England failing even worse than they did but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

With the test matches starting at 00:00 GMT it's going to mean getting nocturnal for a while and hopefully not missing too much to those inevitable naps during the breaks in play. Last time the Ashes were played down under I remember falling asleep after about 3 hours of play where hardly a thing happened. I thought I'd just had one of those quick shut eye moments but alas not because I'd missed about 2 hours and loads of action.

Good job I have plenty of holiday spare at work because I think I'll be needing it although the one bonus of sitting watching cricket through the night is that I can still work from home during that time and not miss a ball so good times all round really.