The Mulching Begins

It was a miserabilist kind of day, starting a minute after midnight, watching the first ball of the Ashes series from Brisbane and seeing Rory Burns cleaned up in the most ignominious fashion imaginable. I stayed up for an hour, seeing four wickets fall, aware that the match was all over before it had barely started.

To be fair to Rory, Forrest hinted at how the body seizes up under that kind of pressure, the weight of so much expectation messing with your head, causing you to be unable to trust your instincts. I have a lot of sympathy. It was tough to watch. The Aussies bowled superbly well. Not too many teams in history would have stood up too well to that. It was an unfortunate toss to win!

The day finished with an evening at the magnificent Howard Assembly Rooms and the highlight performance, for me, of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet. Extraordinary.