{"id":308202,"date":"2025-12-10T04:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T04:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308202\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T04:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T04:17:08","slug":"having-a-bazball-at-noosa-australian-media-goes-to-town-over-englands-mid-ashes-beach-break-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308202\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Having a Bazball at Noosa\u2019: Australian media goes to town over England\u2019s mid-Ashes beach break | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mid-tour jaunt by the England cricket team<\/a> to a Queensland beach town was covered gleefully by Australia\u2019s tabloid newspapers, which splashed a shirtless Ben Stokes across their pages amid taunting headlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn back foot, England bails to the beach\u201d, one read. \u201cLife\u2019s a beach, even for the sinking Poms,\u201d added another. \u201cSun\u2019s out, runs out\u201d, offered a third, alongside a photo of Stokes\u2019s tattooed biceps.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a Bazball at Noosa!\u201d, the top of the front page of Brisbane\u2019’s Courier Mail declared, alongside coverage of Jamie Oliver\u2019s best Christmas ham recipe and Australia\u2019s controversial ban of under-16s from social media which comes into force on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A double page spread inside the news section noted the \u201cwounded\u201d English team couldn\u2019t altogether avoid cricket on their getaway, as Stokes was pictured striding behind a young beachgoer with bat in hand.<\/p>\n

England lost inside two days in Perth in the first Test, and went down by eight wickets in Brisbane. The 2-0 scoreline means the tourists must win in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney if they are to regain the Ashes.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe West Australian delivers its take on the England team\u2019s break. Photograph: The West Australaian<\/p>\n

The West Australian \u2013 which had lampooned the team with the headline \u201cBaz bawl\u201d on their arrival in Perth \u2013 led with a photo of vice-captain Harry Brook, opener Zak Crawley and bowlers Brydon Carse, Will Jacks and Gus Atkinson drinking beer at the beachside Rococo Bistro & Bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter gallivanting around golf courses in Perth and joyriding without helmets on E-scooters in Brisbane, England favoured rest and relaxation for their latest mid-series break,\u201d the article read.<\/p>\n

The front page had pointed to the article with the headline: \u201c\u2018Overprepared\u2019: fails pub test\u201d, citing coach Brendon McCullum\u2019s explanation for the defeat at the Gabba that the players may have overtrained.<\/p>\n

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\"PagePage seven of Wednesday\u2019s Herald Sun. Photograph: Herald Sun<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a horse racing man and you wouldn\u2019t just keep doing the same thing with your horse \u2013 you\u2019d send it around in figure eights or over the little jumps, just to switch it up a bit,\u201d the coach said on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cSo we\u2019ll look at some alternative methods over the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relaxation appears to have part of a plan proving irresistible to Antipodean newsrooms. Even broadsheet The Australian weighed in, with more photos of a topless Stokes on the beach on page three, above the headline \u201cAshes in ruin: Poms take beach sabbatical\u201d.<\/p>\n

The England team have been afforded time off before they travel to Adelaide for the third Test, beginning on 17 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mid-tour jaunt by the England cricket team to a Queensland beach town was covered gleefully by Australia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-308202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}