Bill Frindall's Ashes column, January 3 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Bill Frindall's Ashes column, January 3

9:16am Wednesday 3rd January 2007 in Sport

Bill Frindall writes from Sydney

On New Years Eve, Sydney celebrated the 75th anniversary of its famous Harbour Bridge with an unbelievably spectacular firework display. Tewkesbury-based Gullivers Sports Travel hired the cruiser Sydney 2000 to cheer their 750 disappointed touring cricket supporters with a five-course meal, copious quantities of expensive falling-over water and a grandstand view of the fireworks.

My reward for participating in cricket evenings during each Test was a surprise inclusion on that guest list, along with England cricketers Pat Pocock and Syd Lawrence.

The Bridge is known as the Coathanger because of its arch-based design. A vast scarlet image of one, 300-feet wide, formed the centrepiece of this New Year extravaganza.

Our ship doused its lights as, for 20 minutes, we were surrounded by a battery of multi-coloured explosions all around the city in support of the main event on the Bridge.

On his first visit to Australia, Fred Trueman had been taken to the Bridge by his host. "What do you think of our bridge, Mr Trueman?'" he was asked.

"Your bloody bridge?" thundered Fred.

"It was planned by an Englishman (Francis Greenway, a convict architect from Bristol), built by the Yorkshire firm of Dorman Long and you buggers haven't finished paying for it yet."

Nor did they until 1988.

England's hapless defeats dominated cricket talk on that memorable evening. Can we avoid only the second 5-0 drubbing in Ashes history?

Few would bet against it but Andrew Flintoff is determined to ruin Australia's grand retirement party.

He sealed a much better opening day of this SCG finale with his best batting display of the series, the highlight of his unbeaten 42 being an effortless pick-up for six off Stuart Clark.

Contrary to much that has appeared in the national press, the team is solidly united behind Freddie and the Aussies can expect a much stiffer contest this week. All six batsmen who batted on Tuesday reached 20 and the great Shane Warne was left wicketless after 19 overs of toil.

TMS has been consigned to a rarely used box where the view of the action on this famous ground is restricted by girders, two sets of windows and the wall of the official scorers room in front of us.

We perch on stools bolted to the floor and are surrounded by a snake pit of cables and wires.

Only the Victorian Members' and Ladies' stands survive from my first visit 30 years ago - and neither is visible from our cramped eyrie. Soon the opposite side of this famous ground will be transformed by the construction a new grandstand that will increase the capacity to almost 47,000.

Doug Walters will lose his stand. As it didn't have a bar and smoking was forbidden, he never sat there anyway. Peering over it sadly is the Victorian scoreboard that once dominated The Hill. A protected structure, it will be dismantled and reassembled as a new main entrance to the ground.