Finally, a World Cup victory for England cricket supporters to
cherish. How distant that prospect seemed on the eve of our
departure with the England team looking to be in big trouble against
Ireland in Guyana. Fortunately Messrs, Duckworth and Lewis came up
with an ingenious plan to get us out of the mire and into the Super
Eight stages in Barbados and St.Lucia.
And so we headed to
the Caribbean relieved to know that we would at least be seeing our
favourite teams in action. We were a varied bunch of supporters,
having arrived from many corners of the planet. The majority were
supporting England, but we also had some very keen supporters of
South Africa and Sri Lanka. Our group comprised fans from
Switzerland, South Africa, France, Dubai, Guernsey and various parts
of England including sunny Bognor Regis! On arrival in Barbados, the
sky was blue, the sea was turquoise and the beer was cold. How
could it possibly get better than this? Then the Super Eights
started...
Convincing wins for
England over Pakistan and South Africa suddenly began to make us
wonder if Colly’s boys had a chance after all. Just in case each
victory might be the last we took a decision to make sure we
celebrated with a few cold bottles of Banks on each occasion. When
not watching our own teams in action there was plenty of opportunity
to sit on the beach and chill...
From Barbados we made
the short hop to the beautiful island of St.Lucia for 6 nights where
the sun continued to shine and England continued to win, including
the semi-final against Sri Lanka. The other semi was probably the
most exciting match of the tournament as the Aussies came back from
the dead with Mike Hussey smashing 60 off 24 balls to snatch victory
from a disbelieving Pakistan.
With great
expectations we returned to Barbados to watch England in the Final
against Australia. These were the two best teams in the tournament
and deserved finalists. We made our way to Kensington Oval in a
nervous mood. The atmosphere was brilliant and the noise created by
the England fans made it feel like a home match. The Aussies batted
first and to our utter delight collapsed to 8/3 after only 2 overs.
Of course, they recovered to make a decent total, but when KP and
Kieswetter started smashing them to all corners, the Aussies began
to realise that they would only be collecting losers’ medals this
time.
The England boys were
presented with their first ever one-day trophy, the fireworks were
ignited and the party began. Banks beer never tasted so good and
Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline was never sung so heartily by a
delirious bunch of cricket supporters at the local bar. Ashes
winners and T20 World Champions…bring on the Aussies down under!
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