2009 Ashes series place in history

This is mainly a question for the older contingent of FBers but anyway, how did this series rate for you in comparison to older series?

Being a relatively young cricket fan this was only the second Ashes series that I ever saw that was competitive, so only due to that it's gone down as rather of a classic series for me (not just because England won). The 1997 series was the first one I ever watched with real interest, and whilst England started well I don't think it can really go down as a competitive series (even though the final score of 3-2 might suggest otherwise). Does the 2009 series rate highly in comparison with the 1980s series or for those that remember, even further back?

First: 2005 - one of the best series ever, Ashes or otherwise

Second: 1981 - pure theatre

Third: 2009

Fourth: 1986/87 - it's not often that we win down under

Fifth: 1985 - convincing win,but one of the poorest sides the Aussies ever sent over here

Sixth: 1972 - an emerging Aussie side draw 2 each with Ray Illingworth's Dad's Army.

I haven't listed the series when we were given a rogering by the Aussies as they were too one-sided as contests.

My first memory goes back to the Ashes series of 1968 - now largely forgotten and dismissed as one of several drawn series home and away in the 1960s but for sheer news value beats, imo, even that of 1981.

1st Test at Old Trafford - a largely scratch England side beaten easily by a strong Aussie XI

2nd Test at Lord's - England fight back with a remarkable innings of 83 by Olly Milburn followed by Oz being wiped out for 78 - in the end rain denies England a result.

3rd Test at Edgbaston - Cowdrey's 100 in his 100th Test - the first to complete this feat - completed with a pulled hamstring and Boycott as a runner! Stand-in captain Graveney makes a sporting declaration but once again rain denies England a result.

4th Test at Headingley - probably the least remarkable match in the series although Keith Fletcher is called up for his first Test cap in place of the injured Cowdrey instead of Yorkshire's Phil Sharpe and promptly drops Redpath (who goes on to make 92) at slipas well as opening his Test account with a duck egg. Connolly makes the best use of the seaming conditions - Underwood plays the most remarkable innings of his Test career making 45 in almost as many minutes. Kenny Barrington plays his last Test after making 46* in what seemed like as many hours in England's 2nd innings.

5th Test at The Oval - In what should have been a dead game as, thanks to the draw at Headingley, the Ashes were now out of England's reach instead it proved to be one of high drama as England not only beat the Australians comprehensively but, far more narrowly, the weather which had been England's foe all summer. It combined everything that has obsessed the English so much throughout their history - politics, race, the weather, the 'Dunkirk' spirit and 'mucking in' together and, above all, defeating the Australians but more importantly time - the stumps were due to be pulled up at 6:00 pm and Underwood took Inverarity's wicket (who had batted through the innings for a gritty 56) with 1 minute to go so clockwatching was added as another English obsession,

The whole match was overshadowed by what became known as "The D'Oliveira Affair". D'Oliveira, who had made his Test debut two years earlier against the Windies in 1966, had ahd a poor tour of the Caribbean the previous winter and had been dropped after the 1st Test at Old Trafford, despite making a rearguard effort of 87* in England's 2nd innings.

There was a prospective tour of South Africa the following winter and everyone knew that D'Oliveira's inclusion, as a South African Cape Coloured, would be bound to enrage the Saffie authorities. Nevertheless, after being omitted from the original squad for the Oval Test, he was included after Roger Prideaux, who had debuted at Headingley with 64 in England's 1st innings, withdrew through injury.

after winning the toss England made 494 all out with John Edrich making 164 and passing Denis Compton's 1948 record for the highest aggregate by an England batsman in a home series against Australia (later surpassed by David Gower in 1985) and a flawless 158 by D'Oliveira at 6. Australia responded with 324. led largely by a gritty captain's knock by Bill Lawry - his last 3-figure score against the 'Old Enemy' - he was to be ignominiously sacked before the final Test of the following Ashes series Down Under.

Eager to force a result England sacrificed wickets for quick runs on the Monday, making 181, setting Australia a target of 352. With Underwood ripping through the top order on the morning of the final day all seemed set fair when suddenly a freak storm, more reminiscent of Brisbane than Kennington, flooded the ground at lunchtime.

All seemed lost and hopeless. Once again, the rain gods, as at Lord's and Edgbaston, had frustrated England. There was the sight of Cowdrey, wielding a massive golf umbrella giving press interviews on a soggy outfield to confirm this impression. However the PA anounced a request for volunteers from the crowd to clear water from the sodden field. Suddenly, like the little ships at Dunkirk, an enormous surging mass descended on the sodden field waving mops and brooms obtained from who knows where, self-enlisted as temporary unpaid groundstaff, to complete the greatest miracle since Moses parted the waves of the Red Sea to enable the Israelites to escape Pharoah's chariots, although in this case it was not to aid England's escape but England's conquest of the Australians.

As if to match these efforts the sun deigned to come out, albeit pale and watery-looking, but play finally resumed at 4:45. There followed an agonising 39 minutes as Inverarity (nicknamed "inver Ever" after this effort) and Jarman resisted everything that England could throw, or rather bowl, at them. At 5:24, with time running out,D'Oliveira, whom Cowdrey had brought on to bowl, and could best be described as a kind of slower version of Collingwood, bowled Jarman, allowing Underwood to snap up the remaining 4 wickets including Inverarity himself and claim a famous victory to level the series.

To others of my generation, 1968 will go down as the year of Peace and Love but I will always remember it as the year the waves were parted at The Oval to allow England at least some justice in a bitterly frustrating summer. As for D'Oliveira, the saga had only just begun.

I'm a relatively young cricket fan as well, and of course 2005 was the best series for me, followed by 2009. 2005 was the first time England had regained the ashes in 20 years, and the quality of cricket was at times brilliant and the tension often unbearable. 2009 didn't quite have the same level of cricket or excitement but winning at the Oval and regaining the urn was still a bloody fantastic feeling.

Every other series i've seen has been a crushing Aussie victory so they weren't much fun. But I did enjoy the 1997 ashes series as it gives me fond memories of staying up late watching the coverage on free to air tv when I should have been in bed getting a good night's sleep ahead of school the next day.

hmmnn...Boxing Day test in 06 for wonderful efforts by warnie and general knockabout comedy from the English team (fred and monty aside) and hilarity albeit prescience of the Barmy Army trying to flog their day 4 and 5 tickets before play commenced on Day 3 when england were not totally out of it...

seeing devastating spells by davison and trueman way back when...

ultimate series for me was the immortal WI v Oz here...being at the G when 99,000 were packed in...heroes all on both sides - but Wes Hall my favourite....as I have written elsewhere here I think that series marked the beginning of the end of the white australia policy and by the end of the decade a crucial referendum re the first Australians had been passed...I am convinced that series contributed more to improving race relations than the Bodyline series did to reassessing ties with England

Horrie, should have perhaps clarified I was inquiring as to it's place in ashes history, not overall history.

in order: 1989 ((redemption), 1972 (rebuilding), 2006-07 and 1974-5 (ritual thrashing), and 1979-80 (reunion - but the Ashes were not actually on the line) remain my favourite Australia-England series. Did we play in 1981, 2005, and 2009?

Probably a bunch of imposters hijacked the aircraft on all three occasions.

A correction to my disquisition on the 1968 Ashes series above - Edrich failed by 8 runs to pass Compton's total of 562 made in the 1948 series against the Invincibles - then the record by an England batsman in a home Ashes series. I remember DCS being on the TV commentary when Edrich fell for 17 in the 2nd innings saying "nobody would have been more pleased than me if John had got the record" although inwardly I think he was very pleased he still held it.

It was however comprehensively surpassed by Gower's 732 in 1985 (although that total was made in 6, not 5, Tests with 157 being made in the final Test). This in turn falls some way short of the overall English record of runs in a series against Oz (and any other Test side) of 905 made by Wally Hammond in 1928-9. Still 562 made against Lindwall, Miller, Johnston and Toshack ought to be worth double that made in any other series.

Of those i've witnessed...

2005, 1986/7, 2009, 1985

Not sure there was any cricket between 1987-2005, weird!

1986/7 remains a favourite as it was the first overseas tour I really followed closely ( I remember the news bulletins of the WI tour in 85/6 for the carnage)

It was the first time i'd seen coloured clothing, stump mikes, commentators who didn't sound half dead, massive crowds. Distinctly remember listening to it on a crackly radio reception and staying up all night for the Sydney test when Emburey was bowled by Peter Sleep so missed school the next morning.

I wouldn't put 2009 too high, just because of a lack of classic players. Australia were a shadow of the team the have been, and even for England the two bone-fide stars in Pietersen & Flintoff, both were crocked and didn't really feature.

2005 is clearly the best of the recent vintage, but I would rank a series like 1997 above 2009. In 2009 you had one (very one-sided) Test at Cardiff where the result went down to the wire. In the two tests England won they went ahead early and squeezed the life out of Australia.

1997, okay you knew for the most part Australia were likely to win - but you had great players like Warne, McGrath, Waugh, with his twin centuries at Old Trafford, putting in great performances. England had a team of plucky triers like Gough, Hussain and Stewart, plus a few classy under-achievers like Caddick and Tufnell and the games ebbed and flowed a lot more.

I didn't really enjoy the 2009 series all that much, to be honest. Aside from England winning, of course.

Felt a bit flat and lacking in real quality compared with '05.

Not convinced this Ashes is going to ramp up the quality either, but at least there seems a bit more excitement about it.

Get out of my brain, Gary.

'97 was a good laugh. IIRC, England won the one-dayers 3-zip in the build up, with Ben Hollioake smashing them all around the park, creating a proper buzz that "this time" England were on the up...

Think 86-87 was even worse than 2009 for 'two bald men fighting over a comb' stakes.

2001 and 2006/7 were unremitting misery for the most part. I think 2001 was even more one-sided than 2006/7 at times - we just happened to win 1 day following a sporting declaration.

I actually enjoyed 2002/3 in a masochistic way. It was basically Vaughan vs Australia most games.