It had been 844 days since the world\u2019s most fierce and famous foes last faced off.<\/p>\n
And from Leeds to Leederville and Cotswolds to Cottesloe, they came from all over the world to Perth to witness history unfold on the first day of the most anticipated Ashes series in 143 years.<\/p>\n
In a day of mayhem that mirrored last year\u2019s clash with India, a remarkable 17 wickets fell on the opening day. England were bowled out for 172, with Australia at 8-121 just before stumps.<\/p>\n
Even hours before the first ball on Friday morning, a noisy stampede of more than 51,531 die-hard cricket fans lucky enough to have the hottest ticket in town flooded the walkways of Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n
The aura of it all was summed up best by Alex Marsden, who, flanked by his \u2018Cottesloe Crew,\u2019 could not get there fast enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not often you get iconic sport like this close to home so we\u2019re not going to let it pass us by,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Donning Swan Draught shirts, Mr Marsden said the group\u2019s choice of attire was a bid to go under the radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cMate, we\u2019ve heard the Barmy Army can get a bit full on when they\u2019re on the losing side \u2014 not real good losers \u2014 so we though we better be a bit inconspicuous,\u201d he said. \u201cSee, green and gold \u2014 you\u2019re just showing it off \u2014 Swanny (Draught) though, not so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others, despite the early hour, clutched overpriced mid-strength beer cabs in one hand while draped in the familiar St Georges\u2019 Cross flags that had been carefully Sharpied with hometown club slogans.<\/p>\n
The England tourists were easy to spot. Many had their sun hats pulled low and their shirts already sticking to their backs as the temperature climbed to a barmy 29C.<\/p>\n
Father and son Paul and Harrison Steele admitted the result would likely divide the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (my son) was born here and unfortunately for him \u2014 he supports the Australians,\u201d Mr Steele said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a good weekend out for me but Harrison might be a bit upset with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The atmosphere was thick with anticipation \u2014 the type only a century-old rivalry could bring.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, England fan Jack Morris said it was like \u201cbeing on tour with 50,000 mates but half of them supporting the wrong team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first time coming to Perth and it is beautiful \u2014 what a place to hold the Ashes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
From a distance, the famous Barmy Army painted a striking sea of white and red, filling a wedge of the stands with their trumpets and face-paint.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ground, a sea of green and gold tried to hold the fort from the foreign flags that formed a patchwork quilt across the front rows of the stands: Newcastle, Liverpool, Bristol, some unidentifiable towns in the Midlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re (English) a bloody noisy bunch i\u2019ll give em\u2019 that \u2014 never heard a side cheer so much when they\u2019re falling apart,\u201d Aussie James Thornton said.<\/p>\n
The Barmy Army\u2019s enthusiasm waned when the English side was bowled out by early afternoon, and that\u2019s when the Aussies really came to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It had been 844 days since the world\u2019s most fierce and famous foes last faced off. And from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":["post-299931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}