Saturday 2 November

Day 3 of England's first Ashes warm-up match against a "weak" Western Australia XI who scored 451/5 declared. Chris, Sol and Rio headed down to the WACA with its huge towering floodlights to watch England bat in reply. Finally a chance to get up close to our cricketing heroes. Starting the day at 270/2 with Trott and Bell on overnight 50s saw some beautiful shots, especially from Bell who was creaming the cover drives:

The ground was quite empty, probably only a few thousand there, so we had a choice of seats and moved into various spots during the day, mostly close to behind the bowlers arm, but also hanging out on the sloped grassy bank square of the wicket that will be our home for all of day 3 of the third test. After half an hour I can confirm it's not very comfortable sitting there on the grass, so don't know how we'll manage for a whole day (have to take a cushion). Bell and Trott both completed centuries and then Bell retired just after the second new ball had been taken in order to give the other batsmen some practice, but they all got out cheaply.

At first we had been disappointed that Cook, Broad, Swann and Pietersen weren't playing in this game, but that actually made it easier to see them up close as they went to the nets in the ground to practice. Sol and Rio soon become more interested in the goings-on in the nets than out in the middle and after a short while Rio was aiming to collect autographs on his new floppy cricket hat from as many players as possible. He even managed to get Bell's signature when he inexplicably ended up fielding at 3rd man for a couple of overs to add to the signatures of Cook, Swann and Tremlett. It was nice that the England team were happy to stop and chat in the ground. Here's Cook signing Rio's hat and saying something about where he played when he was young.

Broad was also having a bit of a bowl in the nets but it was not going too well, so time for the double tea-pot.

Sol got to pose with England's backup keeper Jonny Bairstow, who due to an injury to Prior, might be featuring in the Ashes after all.

For the older readers like me, I was excited to see Goochy the batting coach, but without the trademark moustache.

Thoroughly sunburnt, we left early as the game petered to a draw, Rio clutching his "enchanted" hat. Must have done some good because Rio put in a terrific performance at his cricket match the next day.