England 513 beat Australia 98 & 258 by an innings and 157 runs.
Scorecard - BBC, Cricinfo
ENGLAND won the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years after dishing out another humiliating innings thumping in the fourth Test in Melbourne.
Tim Bresnan completed a dream return to the Test arena by taking the final Ashes-sealing wicket as tail ender Ben Hilfenhaus edged behind to Matt Prior for a duck.
Australia had resumed on day four in an absolutely hopeless position on 169-6, still 246 runs behind, and with just three wickets left due to the ankle injury of Ryan Harris.
England made an inevitable early breakthrough when Mitchell Johnson failed to add to his overnight score of six, playing Chris Tremlett onto the stumps with an ugly inside edge via his pads.
But then a cameo from Brad Haddin and the pick of the Aussie bowlers Peter Siddle provided frustrating resistance, and the pair added 86 for the eighth wicket.
Siddle was eventually out for 40 when attempting another outlandish shot off Graeme Swann, only to be caught by Kevin Pietersen in the deep.
Hilfenhaus followed in the next over, leaving Haddin not out on 55 and giving Bresnan his Test-best figures of 4-50, as England popped open the champagne corks at a sparsely attended MCG.
The jubilant celebrations were nothing more than Andrew Strauss and his men deserved having again totally outclassed the Aussies throughout this match.
True, the toss was important to win with the Melbourne pitch tinged with grass, but England took full advantage of their chance by obliterating the hosts, bowling them out for just 98.
Strauss and the top scorer in the series Alastair Cook, on 577 runs, then guided England to 157-0 at the close of a perfect first day for the tourists.
By the end of day two, the lead had been extended to 346 as Jonathan Trott enjoyed partnerships with Pietersen and Prior on his way to an unbeaten 168.
And when England were eventually all out for 513, the lead was 415 and there was more than half of the match time left.
Australia were briefly resurgent, reaching 95-1 at tea on the third day with Philip Hughes as the only man out.
But an evening collapse featuring the wickets of Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith made this morning a formality.
A formality it proved to be as England added this easy win to their other innings thrashing of the Aussies in this series which came at Adelaide in the second Test.
Before this series, Australia had last been beaten at home by an innings 18 years ago. Now it has happened twice in the last two weeks.
England had also broken all sorts of records in the high-scoring draw in the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane, leaving the bad defeat in third Test in Perth as the only blot in the copybook.
Unsurprisingly, with three dominant performances out of four, the tourists have by far the better of the individual statistics.
Remarkably, Cook and Trott average above 100 with the bat, while Pietersen and Ian Bell are in the respectable position of being above 50.
This contrasts with the Aussies who have just three men - Hussey, Haddin and Watson - averaging between 50 and 75.
None of the rest of the Australian batsmen averages above 25 with vice-captain Clarke on 21.14 and captain Ponting on 16.14 making particularly embarrassing contributions.
The bowling figures are also in England's favour with James Anderson (17), Steven Finn (14), Swann and Tremlett (both 13) listed as the top four wicket takers in the series.
Only Siddle (also on 13 wickets) can match the English bowlers with Johnson and the injured Harris only reaching 11 thanks largely to that Perth Test.
Of course, there remains one Test match left in the New Year and it will still be considered an important one by this England team.
Having now achieved a momentous retention of the Ashes in Melbourne, they will want to follow up victory in Victoria with success in Sydney.
After all, another Test win there would make it 3-1 in the series and confirm the tourists' clear superiority.
And, barring a three-day aberration in Perth, a clear victory is frankly the least that England deserve from this fantastic campaign.
--
EARLIER REPORTS
Day three: England on the edge of retaining the Ashes
Australia 98 & 169-6 [Watson 54] v England 513 [Trott 168*, Prior 85, Cook 82, Strauss 69, Pietersen 51; Siddle 6-75]
ENGLAND ran through Australia's fragile top order again on day three in Melbourne to put themselves on the verge of bringing back home the Ashes.
Andrew Strauss' men reduced the Aussies to 169-6, and still have a big lead of 246 runs, meaning this fourth Test match seems certain to finish with an England innings victory on the fourth day.
Australia must reflect on another pitiful batting performance which again included failures by captain Ricky Ponting and vice-captain Michael Clarke.
Mike Hussey, so often the home side's saviour in this series, was out for a duck and only opener Shane Watson surpassed 50.
Watson had actually helped give Australia a decent start to their second innings as they lost just one wicket between lunch and tea to reach the interval at 95-1.
But, when the wicket fell, it came in typically farcical circumstances as Philip Hughes was run out on 23, by a combination of Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior, having hesitated on a quick single.
England stepped up the pressure after tea and Tim Bresnan made the breakthrough, removing Watson on 54 by trapping him lbw.
The Aussie opener attempted to overturn the decision by umpire Tony Hill but the review system backed up the on-field official.
As a result, Watson extended his woeful rate of converting 50s into Test centuries. It now stands at a remarkable 15 failures to make three-figures from a total of 17 half-centuries.
And it went from bad to worse for the Aussies when Ponting was next out for 20, prompting inevitable questions about his position as captain and even his place in the team.
If this was indeed Ponting's Waterloo, then it was a sad end for one of the finest batsmen of his generation.
Ponting may have riled cricket watchers with his dreadful attitude towards the umpires yesterday but the way he was haplessly bowled by Bresnan off an inside edge was a desperate sight.
When Hussey then fell for nought to a brilliant Ian Bell catch in Bresnan's next over, Australia were in tatters again at 104-4.
With Ryan Harris unlikely to bat having badly injured his ankle in the England innings, the tourists now sensed the strong possibility of finishing the match inside three days.
But they were held up in that bid somewhat by Clarke and Steve Smith. The runs were hardly flowing, however, as Graeme Swann - with eventual figures today of 22-11-23-1 - cranked up the pressure with a series of maidens.
Swann got his just desserts by bowling around the wicket to Clarke and inducing an edge from the Aussie vice-captain which flew straight to Strauss at second slip on 13.
For the record, Clarke's series average at 21.14 while Ponting's mean score from the four Tests is an even more pathetic 16.14.
By contrast, Steve Smith can reflect on his innings as the best he has played with the bat in this series, contributing 38 to the score.
But the way he dragged the ball onto his stumps, attempting a pull off James Anderson's bowling, left much to be desired, and he is surely still batting too high at number six.
At the close, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson were left at the crease, on 11 and 6 not out respectively, knowing they will return to the MCG tomorrow with an utterly hopeless task.
Of course, most of the damage had been done on the first two days but England, resuming on 444-5, piled further misery on their hosts in the morning session today.
Well aware that their overnight lead of 346 already looked sufficient, runs were not of prime importance from the tourists' lower order.
It was no surprise then that just a single session was required to bowl England out, especially given the form of Peter Siddle with the ball on his home ground.
Prior was out first on 85, looping a simple catch off Siddle's bowling to Ponting at mid-on.
And Bresnan followed shortly afterwards for four, nicking a faint edge behind to Haddin, for Siddle's fifth wicket of the innings.
The Victoria man is perhaps the only Aussie in the whole line-up who can hold their head up high after this Test despite his own finger-jabbing in Ponting's row with the umpires.
However, Ben Hilfenhaus went some way to redeeming himself by helping his fellow bowler clear up the tail for just his third and fourth wickets of the whole series.
First, Swann - who had made a useful contribution of 22 - skied an attempted pull behind to Haddin who leapt like a salmon to take a fine catch above his head.
Then, Hilfenhaus clean bowled Chris Tremlett for four as the ball started to show some encouraging signs of reverse swing.
It was only right, though, that Siddle completed the innings, splattering Anderson's stumps with the batsmen on one to finish a fine individual performance with 6-75 and two catches.
At the other end, Trott had continued to play his natural defensive game, remaining unmoved by the tumble of wickets and finishing unbeaten on 168.
It meant England had posted their third score of the series in excess of 500, only the second time they had done that in Ashes history, matching the effort set in 1928.
More importantly, it gave England a huge lead of 415 runs and the Aussies even more than the proverbial mountain to climb.
Australia may have begun their second innings more calmly but, once the first wicket fell, the familiar fault lines started to show again.
A second humiliating innings defeat of the series now stares them in the face.
England will just want to get the final three wickets out of the way as quickly as they can so that a well-deserved party can begin.
Even the weather is on the tourists' side. It can be unpredictable in Victoria but there is no rain expected over the MCG between now and the end of the match.
Indeed, from the coin toss onwards, Melbourne has been simply perfect for England.
Day two: Trott ton makes Australia toil
(Close) Australia 98 v England 444-5 [Trott 141*, Cook 82, Prior 75*, Strauss 69, Pietersen 51]
JONATHAN TROTT hit an unbeaten century as England took a giant step towards retaining the Ashes by extending their lead over Australia to 346 runs.
Trott took the match totally out of the Aussies' hands by sharing big partnerships with Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior during the course of the second day of the fourth Test.
While England stand on the edge of glory, Australia are in complete disarray with captain Ricky Ponting fined 40% of his match fee for his disgraceful verbal attack on umpire Aleem Dar.
Ponting, who faces the prospect of becoming the first Aussie captain in modern day history to lose the Ashes three times, could not hide his desperation after Pietersen had survived an caught behind appeal through the video referral.
This incident is not the first time that Ponting has come across as a bad loser and there have been murmurs about his captaincy for a while now.
The Tasmanian was truly a pitiful sight as he clings on not only to the captaincy but even his place in the Aussie batting line-up after a woeful series in which he averages just 15.50.
Australia actually had the better of the early exchanges on day two after England resumed on 157-0, taking two early wickets in an attempt to haul themselves back in the contest.
Alastair Cook was first to be snared for the addition of just two runs to his and England's overnight total.
Cook departed on 82 having edged a Peter Siddle delivery to Shane Watson at first slip.
England then lost their other opener, Andrew Strauss, as Victorian Siddle - playing on his own ground - struck again to remove the skipper for 69.
Strauss failed to deal with a full delivery which clipped the shoulder of his bat and looped gently to Mike Hussey at slip.
Even with those wickets down early on day two, England were still in an immensely comfortably position at 170-2, a lead of 72.
And Trott and Pietersen then killed off any thoughts of an unlikely Aussie comeback by taking England beyond lunch in a 92 partnership.
Australia's frustration at being unable to run through the England batting line-up was telling and Ponting was furious when Pietersen was given not out by the referral system.
Pietersen did fall shortly afterwards, just two overs after he had brought up his 50, and Siddle was the man to do the damage yet again, trapping KP lbw on 51.
The break up of that partnership precipitated further wickets as Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell failed to get out of single figures.
Siddle simply could not be kept out the action, taking both catches as the batsmen hooked into the leg side off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson.
Collingwood's score of eight was the 10th instance of a single-figure score for the Durham man in his last 12 Test innings.
While he is still a fine fielder, England will have succeeded in spite of Collingwood and it is hard to see him lasting much longer in the batting line-up.
Certainly, there was some surprise that the in-form Bell had not been promoted above him after the Perth Test.
But, perhaps that was just as well after Bell suffered a rare failure, out for a solitary run, to boost Johnson's flagging figures which ended up as 2-103 off 25 overs.
Australia thought they had a fourth wicket in the session when Prior edged behind to Brad Haddin but replays showed it was a no ball, invoking further fury in Ponting.
Prior made Johnson pay for over-stepping the line, sharing an unbeaten sixth-wicket stand of 158 with Trott to take England from their position at tea on 304-5 to the close without further loss.
England's score of 444-5 at stumps gives them a commanding lead of 346.
Better still, there is plenty of time left in the match for that advantage to be extended further by throwing the bat around a bit at a demoralised Aussie attack in the morning session of day three.
The lead already leaves Australia needing to bat for almost the whole of the second half of this match in the unenviable position of having to eat up time as well as runs.
And, while no one expects the Aussies to fail as badly as they did in their first innings, surely only the Melbourne's often unpredictably weather can save the home side.
But even that forecast favours England with no significant spells of rain expected in the coming days.
Perhaps, then, the only debate is whether England will win this match and retain the Ashes on day three (tonight at 11pm GMT) or day four.
Day one: Magnificent England smash Aussies at the MCG
(Close) Australia 98 v England 157-0 [Cook 80, Strauss 64]
ENGLAND enjoyed a perfect first day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne by bowling Australia out for 98 before building a lead of 59 runs without loss.
James Anderson and Chris Tremlett took four wickets each, and new man Tim Bresnan chipped in with the other two, as Australia completely folded.
All the wickets fell to full-length balls and were caught behind the stumps as wicketkeeper Matt Prior took six catches in another exemplary bowling and fielding performance by England.
With the series at 1-1, the momentum of the Ashes has now shifted back to the tourists after the Aussies' win in Perth had papered over the cracks of a woefully out-of-form batting line-up.
This time the likes of Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson could not save Australia who collapsed to their lowest ever total against England at the MCG.
England won the toss and Andrew Strauss elected to bowl under cloud cover and on a surface tinged in green. Just like on day one in Perth, the tourists made an early breakthrough.
Watson was the man out, caught by Kevin Pietersen off Tremlett's bowling, for just five runs from an eventful innings in which he was dropped twice by Paul Collingwood and Pietersen on nought.
Thankfully, the two drops did not dent England's confidence in the field and Pietersen soon pouched a second catch as Philip Hughes played a rash shot to Bresnan to be out for 16.
In the following over, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting was dismissed for another cheap score, this time managing only 10 runs before being caught by Graeme Swann off Tremlett.
Australia were 37-3 but they had been in similar situations before as Hussey arrived at the crease, most recently of course in the last match at Perth where they eventually prevailed by 267 runs.
Then, they were 69-5 in the first innings before Hussey scored a century and the Aussie tail wagged to take their total beyond 250.
This time, there was no such reprieve - even after Hussey had survived an optimistic lbw appeal, meaning England had blown their two umpire reviews early on.
But Anderson, Bresnan and Tremlett were bowling well enough not to need assistance from the third umpire and it was Anderson who removed Hussey for eight as Prior took the first of his six catches.
England knew that Hussey, who came into the match with a series average of 103, was the vital man to get out and his dismissal became even more important given the circumstances.
For, immediately after Hussey's wicket, the match was delayed for an hour and a half due to heavy rain as Melbourne lived up to its reputation for changeable weather.
The fact that Australia resumed on 58-4 without Hussey, rather than 58-3 with him at the crease, was a great fillip for the England bowlers who soon delivered again.
And it was the same combination to remove Hussey - Anderson's bowling and Prior's catching - which put an end to Steve Smith on just six to leave Australia on 66-5.
England were determined not to let Australia off the hook like they had done in Perth, and Anderson and Bresnan took three wickets while the Aussies were stuck on 77.
Michael Clarke was the first man to fall, top-scoring for his team with 20 runs, as Prior caught another full-length Anderson delivery.
Another danger man Haddin was out for five in the next over as Strauss took a slip catch off Bresnan before Anderson and Prior combined again to remove Mitchell Johnson for a duck.
Australia were now 77-8 and the only matter up for debate was whether their last three men - Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus - could push the hosts past 100.
They could not, falling just short to be all out for a humiliating 98. Siddle was out first for 11, edging Tremlett behind to Prior before the same men were involved in taking out Hilfenhaus for a duck.
After an early tea, Strauss and Alastair Cook emerged from the pavilion to a pitch which had been flattened somewhat by the heavy roller.
But the pair still had to bat well, each making half centuries under cloud cover, as the tourists finished the day unscathed on 157-0, already a lead of 59.
The Aussies' limp display took up fewer than 43 overs leaving plenty of time in the game for England to build a big first innings lead.
England will want to bat through day two and build their advantage in the knowledge that Australia will surely provide more resistance on a flatter pitch in their second innings.
However, the Melbourne pitch should begin to offer turn which should lend a hand to the off-spin of Swann who ultimately bowled his side to victory in Adelaide with a five-for.
That Swann was barely needed in this first innings effort justified the selectors' rejigging of the bowling attack with Bresnan preferred to Steven Finn.
Finn, with 14 wickets in the series, was the leading Ashes wicket-taker but the youngster had proved to be expensive at Perth, going for more than five an over.
Bresnan bowled a fuller length on his way to six maidens, conceding just 25 runs off his 13 overs, allowing the main threat to come from Anderson and Tremlett.
Anderson took 4-44 off 16 overs while Tremlett had the best figures, taking 4-26 off fewer than 12 overs, including five maidens.
Australia had been strangled out of their runs, their total of 98 coming at just 2.28 per over.
Indeed, it was a classic case of the wickets falling to rash shots under the pressure of not scoring as England took full advantage of the best of the conditions.
Of course, the tourists only need to win either in Melbourne or in the fifth Test to retain the Ashes and win in Australia for the first time since 1986-87.
And Strauss' men will never get a better chance of doing it at the MCG with a Test to spare after today's amazing performance.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Friday, 24 December 2010
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Glaedig Jul
Shèng Dan Kuai Lè
Mele Kalikimaka
Joyeux Noel
Felix dies Nativitatis
God Jul
Feliz Natal
Meri Kurisumasu
C Pождеством Xристовом
Mừng Chúa Giáng Sinh
Krismas ki subhkamna
Feliz Navidad
Buon Natale
Seun-tan chu-ka-hae-yo
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Kala xristougenna
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Miilaad majiid
Merry Christmas
A WAY of saying Merry Christmas around the world, thanks to this game on the wonderful time-wasting device that is Sporcle (hat-tip: Stephen B).
By the way, this is not likely to be last blogpost on TheIntrepidReporter of 2010. Between now and the New Year, I will be attempting to stay up to date with the fourth Test of the Ashes in Sydney, which begins on Christmas Day (tomorrow) at 11pm GMT.
In the meantime, best wishes of the season to my readers! x
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Cameron furious at Cable leaks
SENIOR Liberal Democrat Vince Cable caused profound embarrassment to the coalition government yesterday after telling undercover reporters he had "declared war" on media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Mr Cable, who is the Business Secretary, was due to rule on Mr Murdoch's bid to incorporate BSkyB fully into the NewsCorp organisation.
But Mr Cable has now had this decision taken out of his remit after the revelations to Daily Telegraph journalists posing as members of the public.
The ruling on whether Mr Murdoch can increase his current 39% share will instead be made by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt following a recommendation by Ofcom.
Mr Cable's comments [full transcript here] clearly showed his fears that giving Mr Murdoch full control would affect the output of Sky News and its associated channels.
He has a point - Mr Murdoch's Fox News in the US has increasingly become a platform for little more than propaganda shows of right-wing buffoons.
But Mr Cable has also shown naivety in revealing his opposition so readily when he was meant to be impartial and decide the case upon its merits.
Prime Minister David Cameron was furious and said Mr Cable's comments were "totally unacceptable and inappropriate". The PM has consequently seriously weakened the Business Secretary's portfolio.
Indeed, the decision to strip the Business Secretary of the power to rule on Mr Murdoch was described by BBC political editor Nick Robinson as a "humiliating slap in the face".
However, it could have been a lot worse for the Twickenham MP. He is fortunate still to be on the front bench at all.
For Mr Cable also revealed to the reporters that he could "bring the government down" if he resigned but that this was a "nuclear option" which he was keeping as a last resort.
Certainly, Mr Cameron's decision to retain Mr Cable in the Cabinet caused murmurs of consternation among Conservative MPs who feel they would have faced harsher treatment.
Labour leader Ed Miliband also agreed Mr Cameron had copped out by confirming that he would have sacked the Business Secretary.
But Mr Cameron is well aware of the importance of keeping dissenting Lib Dems on side in the coalition especially in the wake of last week's narrow tuition fee vote victory.
In fact, the Prime Minister may have played a clever political game by removing media regulation from Mr Cable's portfolio, leaving him effectively as the glorified Secretary for Tuition Fees.
Of course, it is the rise in tuition fees which has had the Lib Dems in all sorts of bother. At odds with the public after their pre-election pledge to the contrary, the party has sunk to single figures in most of the polls.
Inside the House of Commons, Mr Cable lost the support of 21 Lib Dems while another six abstained.
It is unclear whether Mr Cable was in fact closer to those grassroots than you would believe given that the tuition fee rise was a measure tabled by himself.
Some of his comments on government policy certainly suggest he is closer to the backbenches than the Cabinet.
For example, the Daily Telegraph also report he criticised the way in which Child Benefit was withdrawn from higher earners as "cack-handed".
For now, though, Mr Cable, as a minister, must continue to toe the coalition line publicly under the constitutional convention of collective responsibility.
But you can only imagine the frosty reception he may receive in the first Cabinet meeting back after the Christmas break.
The breaking point has never been closer but, following Mr Cable's apology, it seems as if the government will stagger on for a few months yet.
However, if the Lib Dems perform as badly as expected in May's local elections and/or if the referendum on the alternative vote is lost, the coalition will be back under serious pressure.
Will Mr Cable, surely aggrieved at his effective demotion, choose that moment to deploy his "nuclear option"? If it came to it, Mr Cable would be wise to be bold and trust his instincts.
Better to make a serious attempt to bring down the government and fail than make a pathetic attempt like Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt's undermining of Gordon Brown.
For now, Mr Cable has opted to sit tight - or, more accurately, he has been allowed to remain in situ by the PM.
But, in a weakened position, this coalition appears to be some sort of political purgatory for him and he seems to be an unhappy man, despite his denials at the Lib Dem conference in September.
It feels only a matter of time until he cracks again and hits his own big red button to send the government spiralling into panic.
Mr Cable, who is the Business Secretary, was due to rule on Mr Murdoch's bid to incorporate BSkyB fully into the NewsCorp organisation.
But Mr Cable has now had this decision taken out of his remit after the revelations to Daily Telegraph journalists posing as members of the public.
The ruling on whether Mr Murdoch can increase his current 39% share will instead be made by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt following a recommendation by Ofcom.
Mr Cable's comments [full transcript here] clearly showed his fears that giving Mr Murdoch full control would affect the output of Sky News and its associated channels.
He has a point - Mr Murdoch's Fox News in the US has increasingly become a platform for little more than propaganda shows of right-wing buffoons.
But Mr Cable has also shown naivety in revealing his opposition so readily when he was meant to be impartial and decide the case upon its merits.
Prime Minister David Cameron was furious and said Mr Cable's comments were "totally unacceptable and inappropriate". The PM has consequently seriously weakened the Business Secretary's portfolio.
Indeed, the decision to strip the Business Secretary of the power to rule on Mr Murdoch was described by BBC political editor Nick Robinson as a "humiliating slap in the face".
However, it could have been a lot worse for the Twickenham MP. He is fortunate still to be on the front bench at all.
For Mr Cable also revealed to the reporters that he could "bring the government down" if he resigned but that this was a "nuclear option" which he was keeping as a last resort.
Certainly, Mr Cameron's decision to retain Mr Cable in the Cabinet caused murmurs of consternation among Conservative MPs who feel they would have faced harsher treatment.
Labour leader Ed Miliband also agreed Mr Cameron had copped out by confirming that he would have sacked the Business Secretary.
But Mr Cameron is well aware of the importance of keeping dissenting Lib Dems on side in the coalition especially in the wake of last week's narrow tuition fee vote victory.
In fact, the Prime Minister may have played a clever political game by removing media regulation from Mr Cable's portfolio, leaving him effectively as the glorified Secretary for Tuition Fees.
Of course, it is the rise in tuition fees which has had the Lib Dems in all sorts of bother. At odds with the public after their pre-election pledge to the contrary, the party has sunk to single figures in most of the polls.
Inside the House of Commons, Mr Cable lost the support of 21 Lib Dems while another six abstained.
It is unclear whether Mr Cable was in fact closer to those grassroots than you would believe given that the tuition fee rise was a measure tabled by himself.
Some of his comments on government policy certainly suggest he is closer to the backbenches than the Cabinet.
For example, the Daily Telegraph also report he criticised the way in which Child Benefit was withdrawn from higher earners as "cack-handed".
For now, though, Mr Cable, as a minister, must continue to toe the coalition line publicly under the constitutional convention of collective responsibility.
But you can only imagine the frosty reception he may receive in the first Cabinet meeting back after the Christmas break.
The breaking point has never been closer but, following Mr Cable's apology, it seems as if the government will stagger on for a few months yet.
However, if the Lib Dems perform as badly as expected in May's local elections and/or if the referendum on the alternative vote is lost, the coalition will be back under serious pressure.
Will Mr Cable, surely aggrieved at his effective demotion, choose that moment to deploy his "nuclear option"? If it came to it, Mr Cable would be wise to be bold and trust his instincts.
Better to make a serious attempt to bring down the government and fail than make a pathetic attempt like Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt's undermining of Gordon Brown.
For now, Mr Cable has opted to sit tight - or, more accurately, he has been allowed to remain in situ by the PM.
But, in a weakened position, this coalition appears to be some sort of political purgatory for him and he seems to be an unhappy man, despite his denials at the Lib Dem conference in September.
It feels only a matter of time until he cracks again and hits his own big red button to send the government spiralling into panic.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
McCoy earns his stripes in my SPOTY picks
SPOTY winners
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Second: Phil Taylor Third: Jessica Ennis
Overseas: Rafael Nadal
Coach: Colin Montgomerie
Team: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young: Tom Daley
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham
Helen Rollason Award: Sir Frank Williams
Unsung Hero: Lance Haggith
My Sports Personality of the Year picks
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Overseas SPOTY: Rafael Nadal
Coach SPOTY: Andy Flower
Team SPOTY: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young SPOTY: Conor Coady (footballer)
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham (pre-selected by BBC)
*Other awards include the Helen Rollason award, given for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, and the Unsung Hero award.
SPOTY main award
TONY MCCOY still heads the betting for tonight's prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award - and rightly so after his Grand National win on Don't Push It in April.
McCoy memorably won the world's greatest steeplechase at the 15th attempt proving persistence pays off.
"If you get enough goes at something and you keep going, once you're in there you've always got a chance," McCoy said once he had calmed down.
For his victory led to a wonderful but unusual outpouring of joy from a jockey who has been head and shoulders above his contemporaries for years.
The Northern Irishman has been Champion Jockey in every season since 1995-6 but the famous Aintree race had somehow eluded him and it was starting to look as if he might never win it.
This year, another chance looked set to pass by McCoy with Black Apalachi ahead and Don't Push it back in the field.
But a strong finish overhauled Black Apalachi's advantage and gave the 36-year-old the finest of his 3,000+ wins.
Of course, McCoy faces tough competition for the award which will be presented at the Birmingham NEC in front of 13,000 people.
In an excellent year for Northern Irish sport, perhaps McCoy's biggest competition comes from his compatriot Graeme McDowell.
McDowell hit the winning putt at Celtic Manor as Europe regained the Ryder Cup by the slimmest of margins in a fascinating finale in Newport.
But applying the coup de grace to Europe's victory was far from McDowell's only achievement in 2010.
The Portrush man also won his first major, the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach by one shot from Frenchman Gregory Havret.
Big names such as Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were all just a couple of shots behind throughout the final round.
But McDowell held them all off to add to complete a great year in which he also won the Welsh Open, again at Celtic Manor, and the Andalucia Masters.
The main problem for McDowell is that the golf vote will be split between himself and Lee Westwood whose brilliant consistency landed him the coveted world number one spot.
Westwood also played a major part in Europe's Ryder Cup win, usually going out first and setting the tone by taking 2.5 points from his four matches.
Even in his singles' match which he lost, Westwood seemed to give the Europe middle-order some momentum by leading until a late collapse.
Unfortunately, nearly but not quite enough seems to be the way for the Worksop man who has agonisingly finished third and second in his last two Open Championships, meaning he is still without a major.
But the feeling is that Westwood's time will come soon. After all, you do not become world number one for nothing.
World number one is where Phil Taylor has been for years in darts. The Power's 7-3 victory over Simon Whitlock with an average of 104.38, no less, was his 15th world championship.
Such a record has often provoked a clamour for Taylor to be bestowed with the SPOTY honour but it seems unlikely that the Stoke man has the fanbase to pull this one off.
Taylor may attract votes as some sort of working-class hero but, given that Zara Phillips won this award in 2006, the programme's demographic seems more far-reaching than that.
That won't bother Taylor too much. After all, he is currently playing at the Alexandra Palace, looking for a 16th world championship at the age of 50.
If Taylor is coming towards the end of his career, the next candidate - Tom Daley - has only just begun.
Diver Daley, at 16, had already become a world champion in 2009 and he added double Commonwealth gold this year against a tough field.
Plymouth-born Daley has a good record in this competition too, having won Young SPOTY in 2007 and 2009.
He was also named in the top ten of the main award last year for his world championship win.
Daley has again been nominated in both awards this year and yet, given his competition, he may be unlucky enough not to win either.
However, what seems certain is that he will be the poster boy for British hopes in the London 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, the pin-up girl is likely to be Jessica Ennis who continued her golden streak in the heptathlon this year, setting a personal best of 6,823 points at the European Championships.
Sheffield-born Ennis, who finished third in last year's SPOTY, also won the World Indoor Championships with a competition-record points total to add to her World Championship win in Berlin in 2009.
Of course, the big prize for 24-year-old Ennis remains the Olympics and Denise Lewis' British points record of 6,831 which she just fell short of this year.
Among the other candidates, Amy Williams is already an Olympic champion having brought home Great Britain's only medal from the Winter Games in Vancouver.
Skeleton athlete Williams became the first individual British gold medalist in 30 years since Robin Cousins won gold in figure skating in 1980 when she got down the Whistler track in the best aggregate time over four runs.
She also set the track record of 53.68 in her third run to set up her victory which came by 56 seconds over German pair Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber.
Manxman Mark Cavendish is another speed merchant to make the final cut after he won another five stages in the 2010 Tour de France to take his career total to an amazing 15 in three years.
The 25-year-old also backed up his stage wins with a green jersey in another of the classic tours, La Vuelta a Espana for the most overall points.
Cavendish looks as if he could dominate sprinting in cycling for years - he certainly seems to have the desire to win over and over again.
Another man with great self-belief is Notts and England spinner Graeme Swann, a late bloomer if ever there was one.
Since his Test debut in December 2008 at the age of 29, Swann has become a major pillar of this largely successful England team.
Under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss, England won their first major ICC World Cup in the Twenty20 version of the sport this year.
The team also enjoyed Test series wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan, and they made a fine start to their Ashes defence with victory in Adelaide before being pegged back in Perth.
Swann has added a new dimension to England's bowling attack, providing the team with a genuine world class spinner.
His 124 Test wickets at an average of 27.62 speaks volumes, as does his ability to pick up five-wicket hauls - no fewer than 10 in just 27 matches.
The final candidate is WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye who defended his belt successfully against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison this year.
Unfortunately, the spectacle of the Haye-Harrison fight left much to be desired and Haye was barely tested, winning in three rounds.
Haye's big year is 2011 in which he plans to fight both of the Klitchko brothers - only by beating them will he cement his place on the pantheon of great British boxing heavyweights.
Overseas SPOTY
IN American Pie, Don McLean wrote: "And while the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown..." and this year saw the long-awaited changing of the guard in tennis.
Rafael Nadal won three of the four majors in 2010 to complete his own career Grand Slam.
While Roger Federer crashed out of Wimbledon at the quarter final stage, Nadal powered to a 6-3 7-5 6-4 - having won his fifth French Open in six years a month earlier.
And at the US open, Federer again went out before the final, losing Novak Djokovic in the semis, opening the door for Nadal.
The Spaniard won 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 against the Serb to become the first player ever to win majors on clay, grass and hardcourt in a single season.
Federer is now 29 while Mallorca-born Nadal is just 24 - and, with him having overcome his knee trouble, it is frightening to think how much more he might win.
Nevertheless, Nadal is likely to face tough competition tonight from New Zealand fly-half Daniel Carter and Sri Lankan spin king Mutiah Muralitharan.
All Black Carter won the Tri Nations for the sixth time and he also helped NZ complete a clean sweep in the Autumn internationals.
While in Britain, Carter hit a penalty against Wales to overhaul Jonny Wilkinson and become the leading Test point scorer with 1,188 points.
That record includes 29 tries, 208 conversion, 207 penalties and two drop goals at an average of 15 point a game, highest average for players with more than 500 Test points.
Meanwhile, Murali was also a record breaker before his retirement this year, becoming the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets, all at an average of 22.72.
Better still, he achieved his feat in typical fairytale style with his final delivery in Test cricket, dismissing Pragjan Ojha of India to complete a 10-wicket win.
Murali's career record was indeed second to none - only Shane Warne, on 708 wickets, came anywhere near to matching this spinning genius.
Coach SPOTY
UNLIKE the 2005 Ashes victory which came at the end of a long unbeaten run, the 2009 win has seemed to breed further success for the England cricketers and their coach Andy Flower.
England are unbeaten in all of their Test series since the fifth Test win at the Oval regained the Ashes, drawing in South Africa, beating Bangladesh twice and Pakistan.
In limited overs cricket, England have overseen a big upturn in form, with five successive series wins over South Africa, Bangladesh twice, Pakistan and Australia. The team also tasted success in the Twenty20 World Cup.
Much credit for this must go to the coach who seems to have instilled a great spirit in the camp and a professionalism which has seen the team's fielding improve massively.
Team SPOTY
THE two golfers, McDowell and Westwood, may cancel each other out in the main award but Europe's Ryder Cup players should be a shoo-in for the Team of the Year.
Trailing 6-4 after the first two sessions of fourballs and foursomes, Europe produced a scintillating run of form to win the third session by 5.5 to 0.5.
The trail of victories began on Saturday evening and finished on Sunday afternoon as the competition was forced into a Monday finish for the first time ever in rainy Wales.
Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jiminez all won their Singles matches while Rory McIlroy and Eduaordo Molinari earned halves.
But, at 13.5-13.5, it was all down to McDowell to keep his cool. That he did, winning on the 17th green after his opponent Hunter Mahan conceded a five-foot putt.
The victory sparked celebrations reminiscent of a football pitch invasion as fans flooded onto the green in a scene which will go down in Ryder Cup history.
Europe had won its sixth Ryder Cup out of the last eight - with four wins in the last five - but only by the slimmest of margins. This was a classic.
Young SPOTY
IN a year in which the England senior team failed badly at the World Cup in South Africa, English football actually won its first major international trophy for 17 years.
England beat Spain 2-1 in the final of the Under-17 European Championships in Liechtenstein and Liverpool's Conor Coady was vital to the success.
Described as a Steven Gerrard-type box-to-box midfielder - with the crew-cut hairstyle to match - Coady was instrumental as skipper in bringing back the trophy in May.
Let us hope in years to come, he will do better than Gerrard on the senior international stage as well.
Lifetime Achievement award
THE BBC has made a shocking decision which smacks of pandering to the masses by giving the Lifetime Achievement award to David Beckham.
To his credit, Beckham won everything there was to win in the club game, and he also hauled the national team out of sticky situations on several occasions.
Off the pitch, Beckham deserves credit for his charitable work, raising awareness for UNICEF and the Unite against Aids campaign.
He has also featured in memorable sketches for Comic Relief and played a big part in helping Great Britain win the bid for the London 2012 Olympics.
But, aged 35, his name sits uncomfortably at the moment alongside other Manchester United greats who have picked up this award - Sir Alex Ferguson, George Best and Sir Bobby Charlton.
The reason being that I would imagine Beckham has much more yet to give in his post-playing career.
When Alexander the Great was 33, he broke down and cried as there were no more lands to conquer. David Beckham is not Alexander the Great.
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Second: Phil Taylor Third: Jessica Ennis
Overseas: Rafael Nadal
Coach: Colin Montgomerie
Team: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young: Tom Daley
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham
Helen Rollason Award: Sir Frank Williams
Unsung Hero: Lance Haggith
My Sports Personality of the Year picks
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Overseas SPOTY: Rafael Nadal
Coach SPOTY: Andy Flower
Team SPOTY: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young SPOTY: Conor Coady (footballer)
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham (pre-selected by BBC)
*Other awards include the Helen Rollason award, given for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, and the Unsung Hero award.
SPOTY main award
TONY MCCOY still heads the betting for tonight's prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award - and rightly so after his Grand National win on Don't Push It in April.
McCoy memorably won the world's greatest steeplechase at the 15th attempt proving persistence pays off.
"If you get enough goes at something and you keep going, once you're in there you've always got a chance," McCoy said once he had calmed down.
For his victory led to a wonderful but unusual outpouring of joy from a jockey who has been head and shoulders above his contemporaries for years.
The Northern Irishman has been Champion Jockey in every season since 1995-6 but the famous Aintree race had somehow eluded him and it was starting to look as if he might never win it.
This year, another chance looked set to pass by McCoy with Black Apalachi ahead and Don't Push it back in the field.
But a strong finish overhauled Black Apalachi's advantage and gave the 36-year-old the finest of his 3,000+ wins.
Of course, McCoy faces tough competition for the award which will be presented at the Birmingham NEC in front of 13,000 people.
In an excellent year for Northern Irish sport, perhaps McCoy's biggest competition comes from his compatriot Graeme McDowell.
McDowell hit the winning putt at Celtic Manor as Europe regained the Ryder Cup by the slimmest of margins in a fascinating finale in Newport.
But applying the coup de grace to Europe's victory was far from McDowell's only achievement in 2010.
The Portrush man also won his first major, the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach by one shot from Frenchman Gregory Havret.
Big names such as Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were all just a couple of shots behind throughout the final round.
But McDowell held them all off to add to complete a great year in which he also won the Welsh Open, again at Celtic Manor, and the Andalucia Masters.
The main problem for McDowell is that the golf vote will be split between himself and Lee Westwood whose brilliant consistency landed him the coveted world number one spot.
Westwood also played a major part in Europe's Ryder Cup win, usually going out first and setting the tone by taking 2.5 points from his four matches.
Even in his singles' match which he lost, Westwood seemed to give the Europe middle-order some momentum by leading until a late collapse.
Unfortunately, nearly but not quite enough seems to be the way for the Worksop man who has agonisingly finished third and second in his last two Open Championships, meaning he is still without a major.
But the feeling is that Westwood's time will come soon. After all, you do not become world number one for nothing.
World number one is where Phil Taylor has been for years in darts. The Power's 7-3 victory over Simon Whitlock with an average of 104.38, no less, was his 15th world championship.
Such a record has often provoked a clamour for Taylor to be bestowed with the SPOTY honour but it seems unlikely that the Stoke man has the fanbase to pull this one off.
Taylor may attract votes as some sort of working-class hero but, given that Zara Phillips won this award in 2006, the programme's demographic seems more far-reaching than that.
That won't bother Taylor too much. After all, he is currently playing at the Alexandra Palace, looking for a 16th world championship at the age of 50.
If Taylor is coming towards the end of his career, the next candidate - Tom Daley - has only just begun.
Diver Daley, at 16, had already become a world champion in 2009 and he added double Commonwealth gold this year against a tough field.
Plymouth-born Daley has a good record in this competition too, having won Young SPOTY in 2007 and 2009.
He was also named in the top ten of the main award last year for his world championship win.
Daley has again been nominated in both awards this year and yet, given his competition, he may be unlucky enough not to win either.
However, what seems certain is that he will be the poster boy for British hopes in the London 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, the pin-up girl is likely to be Jessica Ennis who continued her golden streak in the heptathlon this year, setting a personal best of 6,823 points at the European Championships.
Sheffield-born Ennis, who finished third in last year's SPOTY, also won the World Indoor Championships with a competition-record points total to add to her World Championship win in Berlin in 2009.
Of course, the big prize for 24-year-old Ennis remains the Olympics and Denise Lewis' British points record of 6,831 which she just fell short of this year.
Among the other candidates, Amy Williams is already an Olympic champion having brought home Great Britain's only medal from the Winter Games in Vancouver.
Skeleton athlete Williams became the first individual British gold medalist in 30 years since Robin Cousins won gold in figure skating in 1980 when she got down the Whistler track in the best aggregate time over four runs.
She also set the track record of 53.68 in her third run to set up her victory which came by 56 seconds over German pair Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber.
Manxman Mark Cavendish is another speed merchant to make the final cut after he won another five stages in the 2010 Tour de France to take his career total to an amazing 15 in three years.
The 25-year-old also backed up his stage wins with a green jersey in another of the classic tours, La Vuelta a Espana for the most overall points.
Cavendish looks as if he could dominate sprinting in cycling for years - he certainly seems to have the desire to win over and over again.
Another man with great self-belief is Notts and England spinner Graeme Swann, a late bloomer if ever there was one.
Since his Test debut in December 2008 at the age of 29, Swann has become a major pillar of this largely successful England team.
Under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss, England won their first major ICC World Cup in the Twenty20 version of the sport this year.
The team also enjoyed Test series wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan, and they made a fine start to their Ashes defence with victory in Adelaide before being pegged back in Perth.
Swann has added a new dimension to England's bowling attack, providing the team with a genuine world class spinner.
His 124 Test wickets at an average of 27.62 speaks volumes, as does his ability to pick up five-wicket hauls - no fewer than 10 in just 27 matches.
The final candidate is WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye who defended his belt successfully against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison this year.
Unfortunately, the spectacle of the Haye-Harrison fight left much to be desired and Haye was barely tested, winning in three rounds.
Haye's big year is 2011 in which he plans to fight both of the Klitchko brothers - only by beating them will he cement his place on the pantheon of great British boxing heavyweights.
Overseas SPOTY
IN American Pie, Don McLean wrote: "And while the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown..." and this year saw the long-awaited changing of the guard in tennis.
Rafael Nadal won three of the four majors in 2010 to complete his own career Grand Slam.
While Roger Federer crashed out of Wimbledon at the quarter final stage, Nadal powered to a 6-3 7-5 6-4 - having won his fifth French Open in six years a month earlier.
And at the US open, Federer again went out before the final, losing Novak Djokovic in the semis, opening the door for Nadal.
The Spaniard won 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 against the Serb to become the first player ever to win majors on clay, grass and hardcourt in a single season.
Federer is now 29 while Mallorca-born Nadal is just 24 - and, with him having overcome his knee trouble, it is frightening to think how much more he might win.
Nevertheless, Nadal is likely to face tough competition tonight from New Zealand fly-half Daniel Carter and Sri Lankan spin king Mutiah Muralitharan.
All Black Carter won the Tri Nations for the sixth time and he also helped NZ complete a clean sweep in the Autumn internationals.
While in Britain, Carter hit a penalty against Wales to overhaul Jonny Wilkinson and become the leading Test point scorer with 1,188 points.
That record includes 29 tries, 208 conversion, 207 penalties and two drop goals at an average of 15 point a game, highest average for players with more than 500 Test points.
Meanwhile, Murali was also a record breaker before his retirement this year, becoming the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets, all at an average of 22.72.
Better still, he achieved his feat in typical fairytale style with his final delivery in Test cricket, dismissing Pragjan Ojha of India to complete a 10-wicket win.
Murali's career record was indeed second to none - only Shane Warne, on 708 wickets, came anywhere near to matching this spinning genius.
Coach SPOTY
UNLIKE the 2005 Ashes victory which came at the end of a long unbeaten run, the 2009 win has seemed to breed further success for the England cricketers and their coach Andy Flower.
England are unbeaten in all of their Test series since the fifth Test win at the Oval regained the Ashes, drawing in South Africa, beating Bangladesh twice and Pakistan.
In limited overs cricket, England have overseen a big upturn in form, with five successive series wins over South Africa, Bangladesh twice, Pakistan and Australia. The team also tasted success in the Twenty20 World Cup.
Much credit for this must go to the coach who seems to have instilled a great spirit in the camp and a professionalism which has seen the team's fielding improve massively.
Team SPOTY
THE two golfers, McDowell and Westwood, may cancel each other out in the main award but Europe's Ryder Cup players should be a shoo-in for the Team of the Year.
Trailing 6-4 after the first two sessions of fourballs and foursomes, Europe produced a scintillating run of form to win the third session by 5.5 to 0.5.
The trail of victories began on Saturday evening and finished on Sunday afternoon as the competition was forced into a Monday finish for the first time ever in rainy Wales.
Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jiminez all won their Singles matches while Rory McIlroy and Eduaordo Molinari earned halves.
But, at 13.5-13.5, it was all down to McDowell to keep his cool. That he did, winning on the 17th green after his opponent Hunter Mahan conceded a five-foot putt.
The victory sparked celebrations reminiscent of a football pitch invasion as fans flooded onto the green in a scene which will go down in Ryder Cup history.
Europe had won its sixth Ryder Cup out of the last eight - with four wins in the last five - but only by the slimmest of margins. This was a classic.
Young SPOTY
IN a year in which the England senior team failed badly at the World Cup in South Africa, English football actually won its first major international trophy for 17 years.
England beat Spain 2-1 in the final of the Under-17 European Championships in Liechtenstein and Liverpool's Conor Coady was vital to the success.
Described as a Steven Gerrard-type box-to-box midfielder - with the crew-cut hairstyle to match - Coady was instrumental as skipper in bringing back the trophy in May.
Let us hope in years to come, he will do better than Gerrard on the senior international stage as well.
Lifetime Achievement award
THE BBC has made a shocking decision which smacks of pandering to the masses by giving the Lifetime Achievement award to David Beckham.
To his credit, Beckham won everything there was to win in the club game, and he also hauled the national team out of sticky situations on several occasions.
Off the pitch, Beckham deserves credit for his charitable work, raising awareness for UNICEF and the Unite against Aids campaign.
He has also featured in memorable sketches for Comic Relief and played a big part in helping Great Britain win the bid for the London 2012 Olympics.
But, aged 35, his name sits uncomfortably at the moment alongside other Manchester United greats who have picked up this award - Sir Alex Ferguson, George Best and Sir Bobby Charlton.
The reason being that I would imagine Beckham has much more yet to give in his post-playing career.
When Alexander the Great was 33, he broke down and cried as there were no more lands to conquer. David Beckham is not Alexander the Great.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
The Ashes 2010/11: England sadly go down without a fight
Australia 268 & 309 beat England 187 & 123 by 267 runs
ENGLAND lost their last five wickets within an hour on the fourth day of the third Test as Australia romped to a series-levelling victory.
The match had already been lost yesterday but this morning represented the tourists' last chance to salvage any pride from Perth.
Instead, they only served up a pathetic surrender, losing their remaining quintet of batsmen for just 42 runs in 50 minutes.
England resumed in wretched shape on 81-5 with a 309-run deficit, but there was hope that Ian Bell and Matt Prior may add some respectability to the scorecard.
That hope was ultimately misplaced but only after nightwatchman James Anderson was first to be out on three, having his stumps splattered by the excellent Ryan Harris.
Harris ended up taking his Test-best figures of 6-47 and brought the downfall of Bell by trapping him plumb lbw on 16 with England on 111-7, an apt score for the superstitious among us.
Harris then removed England's last recognised batsmen in Prior for 10 but he was aided by a fine slip-catch by Mike Hussey and a terrible shot selection by the Sussex man.
The hero of the second day and man of the match, Mitchell Johnson, was next to strike as Graeme Swann got a horrid inside edge to be bowled on nine.
And finally Finn was caught by Steve Smith off Harris again for two, the wicket at least preventing a prolongation of the agony.
Australia have been excellent - and with Johnson (9-82) and Harris (9-106) taking 18 of the 20 wickets between them, the hosts seem to have found their best bowling attack.
By contrast - from the moment they let Australia wriggle off the hook on 69-5 - England have been atrocious in this Test.
Even when Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook gave them a decent start, the batsmen could still only muster 187 to concede an 81-run innings deficit.
Only Bell, who hit a defiant 61 in trying circumstances with the tail, could be excused as Johnson ripped through the batting order to take 6-38.
The swing which Johnson had magnificently generated left optimistic England fans hoping Anderson could drag the tourists back into the game by producing a similar spell.
But it never happened, nor did it ever look like happening.
Whether it was his 20,000-mile round-trip to Britain for the birth of his child, or - probably more fundamentally - the decision by England to use just three seamers, Anderson toiled.
He was not the only one. While young Finn continued to take wickets, he also went at more than four-and-a-half runs per over as Australia built their lead.
Just as Bell had been the exception in the batting, Chris Tremlett is one of the few players in the England line-up to emerge with credit, taking a five-for in his first Test match for three years.
However, by the end of day three, Tremlett's efforts counted for nought as England collapsed hopelessly to 81-5 and outlandish hopes of an extraordinary win were crushed.
On day four, England surrendered swiftly, making a mockery of their reputation for being stubborn, built on the back of Test-saving antics in the 2009 Ashes first Test, the subsequent tour of South Africa and in this series in Brisbane.
It should also be remembered, though, that Strauss' men are an inconsistent side, capable of going from the sublime to the ridiculous.
That 2009 Ashes victory included a horrific innings defeat in the fourth Test and a heavy beating in the One Day series while the South Africa tour also included a bad innings defeat.
England's valiant recoveries from such setbacks have earned them deserved praise in recent times but this will really hurt, simply because it was so unexpected.
And so, where do the tourists go from here?
Well, apart from the obvious answer - Melbourne, the management team will surely have a frank debate over how best to use the bowlers.
Bell is also likely to be moved up the order at the expense of Collingwood to prevent England's best stroke-maker from being saddled with the tail.
Whether Bell's promotion over Collingwood coincides with a personnel change to bring in an extra bowler remains to be seen but, whichever eleven players line up at the MCG, the England team and its supporters must not lose heart.
England, as a unit, should not be judged decisively on this performance, just as fans - including yours truly - should not get carried away, as I did, by big wins like the one in Adelaide.
Basically, the series is tied at 1-1 with two matches to play. Victory in either Test would retain the Ashes, bringing them back from Australia for the first time since 1986-87.
And, despite the performance in this match, that objective remains realistic but it would help if England regain the momentum early on Boxing Day in Melbourne.
That is easier said than done in front of almost 100,000 baying Aussies and it seems more likely that this series is being set up for a cracking finale in Sydney.
--
EARLIER REPORTS
Day three: Hussey crushes England as Aussies scent victory
Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] & 309 [Hussey 116, Watson 92; Tremlett 5-87] v England 187 [Bell 53, Strauss 52; Johnson 6-38] & 81-5
MIKE HUSSEY became the first man to score six successive Ashes half-centuries as Australia crushed England on the third day of the third Test at the Waca in Perth.
Hussey hit 116 to make his second century of the series, putting Australia into a huge lead of 309 runs and on the edge of a series-levelling victory.
England have only successfully chased targets of more than 300 on three occasions in history and they will not going to improve on that statistic in this match, falling to 81-5 at the close.
Earlier, Australia resumed on 119-3, already a lead of 200 runs, and the hosts continued to dominate in the opening session.
In that session, the Aussies added 92 runs for the loss of just one wicket. It was opener Shane Watson who fell, having made 95 - the 14th time out of 16 he has made a half-century without going on to make a ton.
And perhaps it is his frustration at this poor conversion rate which explains why he petulantly refused to leave the pitch for a while, even after being given out by the video referral he had requested.
However, on two other occasions in the session, the Aussies used the review system to better effect, overturning poor umpiring decisions to give Steve Smith and Hussey out.
Smith is a skittish player in contrast to Hussey's obdurate calm, and the former only just survived a confident lbw appeal from James Anderson after lunch.
But, while Hussey approached his century, Smith added 36 from 62 balls before giving Watson a lesson in etiquette by walking after nicking Chris Tremlett behind to Matt Prior.
Hussey was then joined at the crease by his favoured batting partner Brad Haddin but the wicket-keeper did not last long this time, making just seven before an inside edge carried a Tremlett delivery onto the stumps.
And Western Australian Hussey continued to lose partners on a regular basis for the rest of the innings.
Mitchell Johnson was next to go for just one run, having been caught at extra cover by Ian Bell off Paul Collingwood's part-time spin.
Then Ryan Harris continued his woeful form with the bat. He also departed for a solitary run - again caught by Bell, this time off the bowling of Steven Finn - meaning he has scored 0, 0, 3 and 1 in his last four innings.
It is a small wonder how Harris bats ahead of Peter Siddle who contributed 35 not out in the first innings and another eight runs in this effort.
Anderson was the man to take the scalp of Siddle, aided by Collingwood in the slips for his 200th Test wicket.
But, sadly, the landmark will be tarnished by one of England's worst all-round performances in recent years.
That same sentiment applies to Tremlett who took his first Test five-for by eventually removing Hussey after the Western Australian attempted a slog to deep square leg.
By then, of course, Australia looked to have done enough, barring an extraordinary effort by England and yet there were still some who thought that the tourists might yet pull this off.
The dreamers pointed towards recent high fourth-innings scores in Perth and noted England's determination in securing draws at Cardiff in 2009 and twice in South Africa.
The realists realised that, given England's first innings performance, knocking off the runs to win this time would easily rank above those escapes and so it is even more unlikely.
England's top-order, which had looked so secure in Brisbane and Adelaide, proved the realists right - and the rest of the final session was punctuated by the clatter of wickets.
Cook was first to fall, lbw to Harris on 13, oddly opting not to review the decision even though the ball looked a bit high.
Strauss followed three overs later for 15, edging Johnson to Ponting at slip to leave England on 37-2.
Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen then attempted to bring some stability to the innings but a succession of maidens built pressure and Pietersen's patience snapped.
A poor shot from Pietersen edged to Watson at first slip and KP was gone for just three runs off 23 balls.
At least Ben Hilfenhaus will be pleased - Pietersen's folly gave him his first wicket since Strauss wafted at the third ball of the series in Brisbane.
Worse was to follow for England just before the close. First, Trott edged Johnson to Ricky Ponting for 31 - and, as if the prove the momentum has indeed swung behind the Aussies, Ponting fumbled his catch but Haddin snatched the rebound.
Then, to the last ball of the day, Collingwood nicked Harris to Smith at slip for 11, leaving England with the proverbial mountain to climb, still 228 behind on 81-5.
It seems to me that the tourists are still shell-shocked at the speed of the turnaround in events.
Having dominated the final two days of the first Test in Brisbane, and enjoyed a thumping win in Adelaide, England won the toss here and had the Aussies in all sorts of trouble at 69-5.
But a failure to finish the hosts off has cost England dear and Strauss' men then compounded that error by collapsing twice in the first innings to end up 187 all out.
Of course, Johnson got the ball to swing and bowled an incredible spell but England's last hope rested on Anderson responding in kind.
Unfortunately, the Burnley Express could not deliver and questions are now sure to be raised about his decision to make two 24-hour trips to England and back to see the birth of his daughter.
However, a more pertinent point lies in England's decision to use just four front-line bowlers, a tactic which has particularly exhausted the fast bowlers.
Tremlett, to his credit, has done extremely well as a replacement for the injured Stuart Broad but it has become evident that the latter's absence is a major blow.
With Broad out, the tourists were understandably wary about weakening their batting line-up further but more faith should have been invested in an in-form top-order.
The top-order is no longer in form and England will leave Perth, not only defeated, but also in a right quandary.
It looks at this stage as if England should field an extra bowler. It would ease the workload on the likes of Anderson and Finn, and increase England's chances of finishing off the Aussies properly if they collapse to 69-5 again.
But the management team favours stability and an additional bowler will increase the length of the tail, further weakening the batting line-up after its worst performance of the tour so far.
Regardless, the very fact that there is any debate is evidence of a big momentum shift - Australia are cock-a-hoop and England are under pressure.
Day two: Australia roar back into Ashes contention
(Close): Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] & 119-3 [Watson 61*] v England 187 [Bell 53, Strauss 52; Johnson 6-38]
MITCHELL JOHNSON produced a spell of Ashes magic as Australia roared back into contention on the second day of the third Test in Perth.
Johnson swung the ball magnificent to take 6-38 as England collapsed from 78-0 to 98-5 and eventually 187 all out, a significant first innings deficit of 81 runs.
Opener Shane Watson then hit an unbeaten 61 to guide Australia to 119-3 at the close, already a lead of exactly 200 runs.
But, undoubtedly, the day belonged to the oft-maligned and undeniably mercurial Johnson.
Dropped after a nightmare first Test of this series in which he failed to take a wicket or score any runs as well as dropping an easy catch, Johnson is perhaps fortunate that Australia played even worse in the second Test to lose by an innings.
However, he repaid the faith of the selectors who recalled him with figures at one stage on day two of 4-7 off 23 balls in a remarkable spell.
England resumed on 29-0 and reached the relative comfort of 78-0 having survived the first hour with just one scare.
The scare came early in the day when a chance offered by captain Andrew Strauss off Ryan Harris dissected wicket-keeper Brad Haddin and Watson in the slips.
But that was nothing as compared to the ferocious swing with which Johnson bowled when he was belatedly brought on by Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting.
Alastair Cook fell in Johnson's first over for 32, driving outside of off-stump but ending up floating a catch to Mike Hussey.
And Johnson then got two wickets in his next over as both Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were victims of lbw to a swinging ball, falling for four runs and a duck respectively.
When, shortly afterwards, Johnson claimed a third lbw scalp in Paul Collingwood, courtesy of excellent use of the video referral system, England were struggling at 98-5.
That is because Strauss had departed just one over earlier on 53, having nicked a seemingly innocuous Harris delivery behind to Haddin.
With Stuart Broad out injured, England's tail had lengthened and the tourists' last hope of restoring parity to the first innings scores lay with Ian Bell and Matt Prior.
In fairness to the pair, they took England well beyond lunch and, with Bell dominating the strike, they looked to be edging Strauss' men back into the contest.
But then Siddle struck to bowl Prior for 12 and, in doing so, he took his first wicket in this series since first day of the first Test in Brisbane where he enjoyed his 26th birthday with a hat-trick.
Bell continued gamely to stave off the inevitable by protecting new man Graeme Swann from being on strike against Johnson as the Aussies looked to excavate the tail.
Instead, it was Harris who was next to cause havoc, inducing Swann to nick one behind to Haddin for 11 shortly before Bell edged an away-swinger to second slip for England's top individual score of 53.
Bell's departure left England on 186-8 with James Anderson and Chris Tremlett at the crease, and Steven Finn still to bat.
It came as no surprise then that only one run was added for the last two wickets - indeed only six runs had been added for the final four.
Johnson feasted himself on the carcass of the England innings, bowling Tremlett for two and removing Anderson for a duck after he had edged to Watson at first slip.
The conclusion of England's innings resulted in an early tea with the bowlers well aware that the onus now rested on them to take quick wickets to force a similar Aussie collapse.
Finn began his task none too badly, delivering a good length ball to Philip Hughes who found Collingwood at third slip for just 12 to leave Australia on 31-1.
Shortly afterwards, Ponting had also failed for a second time, out for just one run when video evidence showed the skipper had grazed a glove behind to Prior off Finn.
Ponting was furious with the decision but should concede that it was given by the third umpire with the benefit of hot-spot and other video footage.
The trio of disappointing Australian batsmen was complete when Tremlett bowled Michael Clarke for a below-par score of 20.
With the loss of Clarke, Australia were 64-3 and England were just about keeping themselves in the match.
In the last hour, though, it got away from the tourists again as Watson - who had survived a couple of early scares - and the indefatigable Hussey scored 55 runs without being parted.
England had started this match so well, winning the toss and reducing the Aussies to 69-5 as they looked for a victory which would retain the Ashes by Christmas.
But, now, the tourists would do well to avoid losing this match. With three days of the match left, there is plenty of time for Australia to increase their lead further and for an on-song bowling attack to dismiss England again.
England's only hope rests with the Perth pitch which has unusually become flatter throughout the course of recent Test matches.
Two years ago, South Africa successfully chased down 414 at the Waca to win by six wickets. It looks at this stage that England may have to match that feat.
Day one: England pick up from where they left off in Adelaide
(Close): Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] v England 29-0
CHRIS TREMLETT took three wickets in his first Test innings for three years as England continued their excellent form on the first day of the third Ashes Test in Perth.
Tremlett, who replaced the injured Stuart Broad, finished with 3-63 as Australia were bowled out for 268 - having been 69-5 at one stage.
England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and took a calculated risk by putting the hosts in on a grassy wicket in Western Australia.
It paid off as Australia's top order batsmen, totally shorn of confidence after the defeat in the second Test in Adelaide, failed again.
Philip Hughes' first appearance in this series for the Aussies proved to be a brief one.
Hughes, the replacement for injured opener Simon Katich, made just two before being clean-bowled by Tremlett.
England's reserve had got the better of Australia's substitute in his first over. It was as if nothing had changed from 10 days ago in Adelaide.
Not wanting to be outshone, James Anderson struck next, extending Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting's barren run by removing him for just 12.
However, most of the credit will rightly go to Paul Collingwood for his sensational one-handed catch at second slip - a perfect demonstration of England's top class fielding.
Ponting may reflect that he was the victim of an audacious slip catch but perhaps the worst thing that can be said about his vice-captain Michael Clarke was that his wicket was no surprise.
Clarke is dreadfully out-of-form and he was dismissed here for just four after a tentative prod to Tremlett was edged behind to wicket-keeper Matt Prior.
Shortly afterwards, with just over an hour of play gone, Australia were close to tatters at 36-4.
Opener Shane Watson was trapped plumb lbw by Steven Finn and wasted a review more in hope than expectation. His request was typical of the Aussies' increasing desperation.
But, by then, local man Mike Hussey was at the crease and, after Watson's wicket, he calmed the situation down somewhat to build a slow partnership with another new selection, Steve Smith.
The pair reached lunch without further loss at 65-4 but then Smith put the hosts back under immense pressure straight after the interval, edging a wide Tremlett delivery to Strauss in the slips.
However, Hussey remained unmoved, and he was joined in the middle by Brad Haddin with whom he had shared a massive 307-run partnership in the first Test in Brisbane. How long ago that feels now!
Hussey and Haddin constructed another decent partnership here, considering the circumstances, adding 68 runs for the sixth wicket.
But, while both men played themselves in, neither progressed to a particularly big score.
Hussey was out for 61 midway through the afternoon session as Swann picked up his first wicket of this Test courtesy of a huge edge to Prior and the decision referral system which showed it.
Haddin lasted beyond tea but was out for 53 when a mis-timed drive off Anderson flew to Swann who took a good catch above his head at second slip.
At this stage, Australia were on 189-7 with just the tail remaining, and the chance of a score significantly greater than 200 looked over.
But Mitchell Johnson, recalled to the team after his first Test nightmare, repaid some of his dues by batting with the tail to top-score in the innings with 62.
The same could not be said of Ryan Harris who last week became only the second ever Australian to be out first ball in both of his innings.
Harris lasted a little longer this time but he was still out for a measly three runs off just five balls when Anderson bowled him off his pads to pick up his third wicket.
Peter Siddle, who finished 35 not out, put up more resistance with Johnson until the latter tried one too many ultra-attacking shots, pulling a Finn ball to Anderson at square-leg.
And then Siddle added 35 for the last wicket with Ben Hilfenhaus to haul the hosts beyond 250 and keep them still with a chance of winning this match.
For the first time in this series, the Aussie tail wagged but concerns remain stark for the under-pressure Ponting who has now had his future publicly questioned by his predecessor Steve Waugh.
Ponting's top-order, of which he is a member, were out-thought by England again while his bowlers failed to threaten as Strauss and Alastair Cook safely negotiated the remaining 12 overs.
The bowlers may have added respectability to the Aussie score but if they cannot make inroads into England's batting line-up then those efforts will have been for nought.
Meanwhile, England can take pleasure from the fact that day one belonged to them again - the only disappointment being that the Aussies had not been bowled out even more cheaply after such a strong start.
However, Strauss and his men know that a good batting performance throughout day two and into day three would put them on the edge of retaining the Ashes.
England's fate is very much in their own hands.
ENGLAND lost their last five wickets within an hour on the fourth day of the third Test as Australia romped to a series-levelling victory.
The match had already been lost yesterday but this morning represented the tourists' last chance to salvage any pride from Perth.
Instead, they only served up a pathetic surrender, losing their remaining quintet of batsmen for just 42 runs in 50 minutes.
England resumed in wretched shape on 81-5 with a 309-run deficit, but there was hope that Ian Bell and Matt Prior may add some respectability to the scorecard.
That hope was ultimately misplaced but only after nightwatchman James Anderson was first to be out on three, having his stumps splattered by the excellent Ryan Harris.
Harris ended up taking his Test-best figures of 6-47 and brought the downfall of Bell by trapping him plumb lbw on 16 with England on 111-7, an apt score for the superstitious among us.
Harris then removed England's last recognised batsmen in Prior for 10 but he was aided by a fine slip-catch by Mike Hussey and a terrible shot selection by the Sussex man.
The hero of the second day and man of the match, Mitchell Johnson, was next to strike as Graeme Swann got a horrid inside edge to be bowled on nine.
And finally Finn was caught by Steve Smith off Harris again for two, the wicket at least preventing a prolongation of the agony.
Australia have been excellent - and with Johnson (9-82) and Harris (9-106) taking 18 of the 20 wickets between them, the hosts seem to have found their best bowling attack.
By contrast - from the moment they let Australia wriggle off the hook on 69-5 - England have been atrocious in this Test.
Even when Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook gave them a decent start, the batsmen could still only muster 187 to concede an 81-run innings deficit.
Only Bell, who hit a defiant 61 in trying circumstances with the tail, could be excused as Johnson ripped through the batting order to take 6-38.
The swing which Johnson had magnificently generated left optimistic England fans hoping Anderson could drag the tourists back into the game by producing a similar spell.
But it never happened, nor did it ever look like happening.
Whether it was his 20,000-mile round-trip to Britain for the birth of his child, or - probably more fundamentally - the decision by England to use just three seamers, Anderson toiled.
He was not the only one. While young Finn continued to take wickets, he also went at more than four-and-a-half runs per over as Australia built their lead.
Just as Bell had been the exception in the batting, Chris Tremlett is one of the few players in the England line-up to emerge with credit, taking a five-for in his first Test match for three years.
However, by the end of day three, Tremlett's efforts counted for nought as England collapsed hopelessly to 81-5 and outlandish hopes of an extraordinary win were crushed.
On day four, England surrendered swiftly, making a mockery of their reputation for being stubborn, built on the back of Test-saving antics in the 2009 Ashes first Test, the subsequent tour of South Africa and in this series in Brisbane.
It should also be remembered, though, that Strauss' men are an inconsistent side, capable of going from the sublime to the ridiculous.
That 2009 Ashes victory included a horrific innings defeat in the fourth Test and a heavy beating in the One Day series while the South Africa tour also included a bad innings defeat.
England's valiant recoveries from such setbacks have earned them deserved praise in recent times but this will really hurt, simply because it was so unexpected.
And so, where do the tourists go from here?
Well, apart from the obvious answer - Melbourne, the management team will surely have a frank debate over how best to use the bowlers.
Bell is also likely to be moved up the order at the expense of Collingwood to prevent England's best stroke-maker from being saddled with the tail.
Whether Bell's promotion over Collingwood coincides with a personnel change to bring in an extra bowler remains to be seen but, whichever eleven players line up at the MCG, the England team and its supporters must not lose heart.
England, as a unit, should not be judged decisively on this performance, just as fans - including yours truly - should not get carried away, as I did, by big wins like the one in Adelaide.
Basically, the series is tied at 1-1 with two matches to play. Victory in either Test would retain the Ashes, bringing them back from Australia for the first time since 1986-87.
And, despite the performance in this match, that objective remains realistic but it would help if England regain the momentum early on Boxing Day in Melbourne.
That is easier said than done in front of almost 100,000 baying Aussies and it seems more likely that this series is being set up for a cracking finale in Sydney.
--
EARLIER REPORTS
Day three: Hussey crushes England as Aussies scent victory
Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] & 309 [Hussey 116, Watson 92; Tremlett 5-87] v England 187 [Bell 53, Strauss 52; Johnson 6-38] & 81-5
MIKE HUSSEY became the first man to score six successive Ashes half-centuries as Australia crushed England on the third day of the third Test at the Waca in Perth.
Hussey hit 116 to make his second century of the series, putting Australia into a huge lead of 309 runs and on the edge of a series-levelling victory.
England have only successfully chased targets of more than 300 on three occasions in history and they will not going to improve on that statistic in this match, falling to 81-5 at the close.
Earlier, Australia resumed on 119-3, already a lead of 200 runs, and the hosts continued to dominate in the opening session.
In that session, the Aussies added 92 runs for the loss of just one wicket. It was opener Shane Watson who fell, having made 95 - the 14th time out of 16 he has made a half-century without going on to make a ton.
And perhaps it is his frustration at this poor conversion rate which explains why he petulantly refused to leave the pitch for a while, even after being given out by the video referral he had requested.
However, on two other occasions in the session, the Aussies used the review system to better effect, overturning poor umpiring decisions to give Steve Smith and Hussey out.
Smith is a skittish player in contrast to Hussey's obdurate calm, and the former only just survived a confident lbw appeal from James Anderson after lunch.
But, while Hussey approached his century, Smith added 36 from 62 balls before giving Watson a lesson in etiquette by walking after nicking Chris Tremlett behind to Matt Prior.
Hussey was then joined at the crease by his favoured batting partner Brad Haddin but the wicket-keeper did not last long this time, making just seven before an inside edge carried a Tremlett delivery onto the stumps.
And Western Australian Hussey continued to lose partners on a regular basis for the rest of the innings.
Mitchell Johnson was next to go for just one run, having been caught at extra cover by Ian Bell off Paul Collingwood's part-time spin.
Then Ryan Harris continued his woeful form with the bat. He also departed for a solitary run - again caught by Bell, this time off the bowling of Steven Finn - meaning he has scored 0, 0, 3 and 1 in his last four innings.
It is a small wonder how Harris bats ahead of Peter Siddle who contributed 35 not out in the first innings and another eight runs in this effort.
Anderson was the man to take the scalp of Siddle, aided by Collingwood in the slips for his 200th Test wicket.
But, sadly, the landmark will be tarnished by one of England's worst all-round performances in recent years.
That same sentiment applies to Tremlett who took his first Test five-for by eventually removing Hussey after the Western Australian attempted a slog to deep square leg.
By then, of course, Australia looked to have done enough, barring an extraordinary effort by England and yet there were still some who thought that the tourists might yet pull this off.
The dreamers pointed towards recent high fourth-innings scores in Perth and noted England's determination in securing draws at Cardiff in 2009 and twice in South Africa.
The realists realised that, given England's first innings performance, knocking off the runs to win this time would easily rank above those escapes and so it is even more unlikely.
England's top-order, which had looked so secure in Brisbane and Adelaide, proved the realists right - and the rest of the final session was punctuated by the clatter of wickets.
Cook was first to fall, lbw to Harris on 13, oddly opting not to review the decision even though the ball looked a bit high.
Strauss followed three overs later for 15, edging Johnson to Ponting at slip to leave England on 37-2.
Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen then attempted to bring some stability to the innings but a succession of maidens built pressure and Pietersen's patience snapped.
A poor shot from Pietersen edged to Watson at first slip and KP was gone for just three runs off 23 balls.
At least Ben Hilfenhaus will be pleased - Pietersen's folly gave him his first wicket since Strauss wafted at the third ball of the series in Brisbane.
Worse was to follow for England just before the close. First, Trott edged Johnson to Ricky Ponting for 31 - and, as if the prove the momentum has indeed swung behind the Aussies, Ponting fumbled his catch but Haddin snatched the rebound.
Then, to the last ball of the day, Collingwood nicked Harris to Smith at slip for 11, leaving England with the proverbial mountain to climb, still 228 behind on 81-5.
It seems to me that the tourists are still shell-shocked at the speed of the turnaround in events.
Having dominated the final two days of the first Test in Brisbane, and enjoyed a thumping win in Adelaide, England won the toss here and had the Aussies in all sorts of trouble at 69-5.
But a failure to finish the hosts off has cost England dear and Strauss' men then compounded that error by collapsing twice in the first innings to end up 187 all out.
Of course, Johnson got the ball to swing and bowled an incredible spell but England's last hope rested on Anderson responding in kind.
Unfortunately, the Burnley Express could not deliver and questions are now sure to be raised about his decision to make two 24-hour trips to England and back to see the birth of his daughter.
However, a more pertinent point lies in England's decision to use just four front-line bowlers, a tactic which has particularly exhausted the fast bowlers.
Tremlett, to his credit, has done extremely well as a replacement for the injured Stuart Broad but it has become evident that the latter's absence is a major blow.
With Broad out, the tourists were understandably wary about weakening their batting line-up further but more faith should have been invested in an in-form top-order.
The top-order is no longer in form and England will leave Perth, not only defeated, but also in a right quandary.
It looks at this stage as if England should field an extra bowler. It would ease the workload on the likes of Anderson and Finn, and increase England's chances of finishing off the Aussies properly if they collapse to 69-5 again.
But the management team favours stability and an additional bowler will increase the length of the tail, further weakening the batting line-up after its worst performance of the tour so far.
Regardless, the very fact that there is any debate is evidence of a big momentum shift - Australia are cock-a-hoop and England are under pressure.
Day two: Australia roar back into Ashes contention
(Close): Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] & 119-3 [Watson 61*] v England 187 [Bell 53, Strauss 52; Johnson 6-38]
MITCHELL JOHNSON produced a spell of Ashes magic as Australia roared back into contention on the second day of the third Test in Perth.
Johnson swung the ball magnificent to take 6-38 as England collapsed from 78-0 to 98-5 and eventually 187 all out, a significant first innings deficit of 81 runs.
Opener Shane Watson then hit an unbeaten 61 to guide Australia to 119-3 at the close, already a lead of exactly 200 runs.
But, undoubtedly, the day belonged to the oft-maligned and undeniably mercurial Johnson.
Dropped after a nightmare first Test of this series in which he failed to take a wicket or score any runs as well as dropping an easy catch, Johnson is perhaps fortunate that Australia played even worse in the second Test to lose by an innings.
However, he repaid the faith of the selectors who recalled him with figures at one stage on day two of 4-7 off 23 balls in a remarkable spell.
England resumed on 29-0 and reached the relative comfort of 78-0 having survived the first hour with just one scare.
The scare came early in the day when a chance offered by captain Andrew Strauss off Ryan Harris dissected wicket-keeper Brad Haddin and Watson in the slips.
But that was nothing as compared to the ferocious swing with which Johnson bowled when he was belatedly brought on by Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting.
Alastair Cook fell in Johnson's first over for 32, driving outside of off-stump but ending up floating a catch to Mike Hussey.
And Johnson then got two wickets in his next over as both Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were victims of lbw to a swinging ball, falling for four runs and a duck respectively.
When, shortly afterwards, Johnson claimed a third lbw scalp in Paul Collingwood, courtesy of excellent use of the video referral system, England were struggling at 98-5.
That is because Strauss had departed just one over earlier on 53, having nicked a seemingly innocuous Harris delivery behind to Haddin.
With Stuart Broad out injured, England's tail had lengthened and the tourists' last hope of restoring parity to the first innings scores lay with Ian Bell and Matt Prior.
In fairness to the pair, they took England well beyond lunch and, with Bell dominating the strike, they looked to be edging Strauss' men back into the contest.
But then Siddle struck to bowl Prior for 12 and, in doing so, he took his first wicket in this series since first day of the first Test in Brisbane where he enjoyed his 26th birthday with a hat-trick.
Bell continued gamely to stave off the inevitable by protecting new man Graeme Swann from being on strike against Johnson as the Aussies looked to excavate the tail.
Instead, it was Harris who was next to cause havoc, inducing Swann to nick one behind to Haddin for 11 shortly before Bell edged an away-swinger to second slip for England's top individual score of 53.
Bell's departure left England on 186-8 with James Anderson and Chris Tremlett at the crease, and Steven Finn still to bat.
It came as no surprise then that only one run was added for the last two wickets - indeed only six runs had been added for the final four.
Johnson feasted himself on the carcass of the England innings, bowling Tremlett for two and removing Anderson for a duck after he had edged to Watson at first slip.
The conclusion of England's innings resulted in an early tea with the bowlers well aware that the onus now rested on them to take quick wickets to force a similar Aussie collapse.
Finn began his task none too badly, delivering a good length ball to Philip Hughes who found Collingwood at third slip for just 12 to leave Australia on 31-1.
Shortly afterwards, Ponting had also failed for a second time, out for just one run when video evidence showed the skipper had grazed a glove behind to Prior off Finn.
Ponting was furious with the decision but should concede that it was given by the third umpire with the benefit of hot-spot and other video footage.
The trio of disappointing Australian batsmen was complete when Tremlett bowled Michael Clarke for a below-par score of 20.
With the loss of Clarke, Australia were 64-3 and England were just about keeping themselves in the match.
In the last hour, though, it got away from the tourists again as Watson - who had survived a couple of early scares - and the indefatigable Hussey scored 55 runs without being parted.
England had started this match so well, winning the toss and reducing the Aussies to 69-5 as they looked for a victory which would retain the Ashes by Christmas.
But, now, the tourists would do well to avoid losing this match. With three days of the match left, there is plenty of time for Australia to increase their lead further and for an on-song bowling attack to dismiss England again.
England's only hope rests with the Perth pitch which has unusually become flatter throughout the course of recent Test matches.
Two years ago, South Africa successfully chased down 414 at the Waca to win by six wickets. It looks at this stage that England may have to match that feat.
Day one: England pick up from where they left off in Adelaide
(Close): Australia 268 [Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53] v England 29-0
CHRIS TREMLETT took three wickets in his first Test innings for three years as England continued their excellent form on the first day of the third Ashes Test in Perth.
Tremlett, who replaced the injured Stuart Broad, finished with 3-63 as Australia were bowled out for 268 - having been 69-5 at one stage.
England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and took a calculated risk by putting the hosts in on a grassy wicket in Western Australia.
It paid off as Australia's top order batsmen, totally shorn of confidence after the defeat in the second Test in Adelaide, failed again.
Philip Hughes' first appearance in this series for the Aussies proved to be a brief one.
Hughes, the replacement for injured opener Simon Katich, made just two before being clean-bowled by Tremlett.
England's reserve had got the better of Australia's substitute in his first over. It was as if nothing had changed from 10 days ago in Adelaide.
Not wanting to be outshone, James Anderson struck next, extending Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting's barren run by removing him for just 12.
However, most of the credit will rightly go to Paul Collingwood for his sensational one-handed catch at second slip - a perfect demonstration of England's top class fielding.
Ponting may reflect that he was the victim of an audacious slip catch but perhaps the worst thing that can be said about his vice-captain Michael Clarke was that his wicket was no surprise.
Clarke is dreadfully out-of-form and he was dismissed here for just four after a tentative prod to Tremlett was edged behind to wicket-keeper Matt Prior.
Shortly afterwards, with just over an hour of play gone, Australia were close to tatters at 36-4.
Opener Shane Watson was trapped plumb lbw by Steven Finn and wasted a review more in hope than expectation. His request was typical of the Aussies' increasing desperation.
But, by then, local man Mike Hussey was at the crease and, after Watson's wicket, he calmed the situation down somewhat to build a slow partnership with another new selection, Steve Smith.
The pair reached lunch without further loss at 65-4 but then Smith put the hosts back under immense pressure straight after the interval, edging a wide Tremlett delivery to Strauss in the slips.
However, Hussey remained unmoved, and he was joined in the middle by Brad Haddin with whom he had shared a massive 307-run partnership in the first Test in Brisbane. How long ago that feels now!
Hussey and Haddin constructed another decent partnership here, considering the circumstances, adding 68 runs for the sixth wicket.
But, while both men played themselves in, neither progressed to a particularly big score.
Hussey was out for 61 midway through the afternoon session as Swann picked up his first wicket of this Test courtesy of a huge edge to Prior and the decision referral system which showed it.
Haddin lasted beyond tea but was out for 53 when a mis-timed drive off Anderson flew to Swann who took a good catch above his head at second slip.
At this stage, Australia were on 189-7 with just the tail remaining, and the chance of a score significantly greater than 200 looked over.
But Mitchell Johnson, recalled to the team after his first Test nightmare, repaid some of his dues by batting with the tail to top-score in the innings with 62.
The same could not be said of Ryan Harris who last week became only the second ever Australian to be out first ball in both of his innings.
Harris lasted a little longer this time but he was still out for a measly three runs off just five balls when Anderson bowled him off his pads to pick up his third wicket.
Peter Siddle, who finished 35 not out, put up more resistance with Johnson until the latter tried one too many ultra-attacking shots, pulling a Finn ball to Anderson at square-leg.
And then Siddle added 35 for the last wicket with Ben Hilfenhaus to haul the hosts beyond 250 and keep them still with a chance of winning this match.
For the first time in this series, the Aussie tail wagged but concerns remain stark for the under-pressure Ponting who has now had his future publicly questioned by his predecessor Steve Waugh.
Ponting's top-order, of which he is a member, were out-thought by England again while his bowlers failed to threaten as Strauss and Alastair Cook safely negotiated the remaining 12 overs.
The bowlers may have added respectability to the Aussie score but if they cannot make inroads into England's batting line-up then those efforts will have been for nought.
Meanwhile, England can take pleasure from the fact that day one belonged to them again - the only disappointment being that the Aussies had not been bowled out even more cheaply after such a strong start.
However, Strauss and his men know that a good batting performance throughout day two and into day three would put them on the edge of retaining the Ashes.
England's fate is very much in their own hands.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Lib Dems divide in Government's tuition fee vote victory
PROPOSED MOTION
That, for the purpose of section 24 of the Higher Education Act 2004, the higher amount should be increased to £9,000, and to £4,500 in the cases described in regulation 5 of the draft regulations in Command Paper Cm 7986, and that the increase should take effect from 1 September 2012.
Result: Ayes (for) 323 Noes (against) 302
Government majority: 21
TUITION fees at some universities could rise to as much as £9,000 a year after the coalition government survived a backbench rebellion to win a narrow victory.
The government had its majority cut by three-quarters as 21 Lib Dem MPs and six Conservative MPs opposed the motion in the Commons last week.
But the support of Lib Dem ministers, gained earlier in the week when party leader Nick Clegg earned some concessions, was vital in pushing through the measure.
That support will prove controversial at a grassroots level in the party as the original coalition agreement allowed Lib Dems to abstain.
However, with the measure having been introduced by Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Lib Dem, the Tories accused their junior coalition partners of not putting their whole weight behind the government.
As a result, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg got all of his ministers on side but this meant there was a clear three-way split at the highest levels of his party.
While Mr Clegg, Mr Cable and the other ministers voted for a rise in tuition fees, party president Tim Farron was among the 21 Lib Dem MPs to vote against.
Deputy leader of the party Simon Hughes abstained along with five others and two MPs - Chris Huhne and Martin Horwood - were at the Cancun climate summit and could not attend.
Calls for unity by Mr Clegg look optimistic at best and the split between front-bench and back-bench Lib Dem MPs has damaged the party in the public eye.
Moreover, the fact that the measure ultimately relied on Lib Dem support hardly helped either.
Energy Secretary Mr Huhne admitted so much in saying that the party was "going to go through a period of immense unpopularity".
And the vote seems to have had an effect on the Lib Dems' already dreadful poll rating as it tumbled even further last week.
A showing of just 8% in YouGov's daily tracker last Wednesday was their lowest level of support for the party since September 1990.
If the figure was applied in a general election, the Lib Dems would be left with just a handful of seats, and it is becoming harder and harder for many supporters to see the value of them being in this coalition.
Indeed, former director of policy Richard Grayson has suggested the Lib Dems have moved too far to the right and need to re-engage with Labour.
Ed Miliband, the recently-elected Labour leader, acted swiftly on Mr Grayson's article, offering Lib Dems the chance to have an input on Labour's policy review.
But, even Mr Farron, who voted against the rise in fees, called the move "desperate" and it certainly looks that way as Mr Miliband deals with some early struggles.
Although Labour remain steady in the polls, unlike the flailing Lib Dems, members of Mr Miliband's own party still seem uncertain about his position.
Anthony Wells on UK Polling report writes: "19% of current Labour supporters and 21% of people who voted Labour in 2010 think that Ed Miliband isn’t up to it. 23% of Labour supporters aren’t sure.
"Asked whether Ed or David Miliband would have made the better leader, 36% of Labour supporters think David would have been better, 26% think Ed was the right choice."
Ed Miliband's weak performances as the Despatch Box in Prime Minister's Questions will not have helped.
But his low personal rating can be probably more easily attributed to his party's incoherence on this issue of tuition fees.
Mr Miliband and his Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson took opposing views on the alternative policy of a graduate tax before Mr Johnson made an unconvincing U-turn to support his leader.
In the supposed new era for the party which went beyond the rivalry of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and against an unpopular coalition policy to boot - Labour looked lost in opposition.
Only the Conservatives can be happy with the way the vote went and - even then - it was a stark reminder of their failure to gain an overall majority and the resultant reliance on the Lib Dems.
It should also be noted that the policy was not unanimously supported by the Tories with former party leadership candidate David Davis the highest-profile of the six rebels.
Mr Davis comes from a working class background and said he was worried that the enormous fees - while not paid up front - would still put off genuinely talented people from going to university.
This opposition from the likes of Mr Davies, and former Lib Dem leaders Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell, suggests to me that the motion to defer the decision should have also been put to the vote.
But the speaker John Bercow rejected this alternative and so died the last remaining hope for students, school pupils and academic staff.
Unsurprisingly, the result saw the all-day student protest in London take a turn for the worse.
The stories in the newspapers centred on this and the news-desks got their 'money-shot' when Prince Charles and Camilla, showing incredibly little tact, were caught up in the violence in their car.
Elsewhere, the statue of Winston Churchill was shamefully daubed with graffiti while Charlie Gilmour - the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David - was arrested after climbing on the Cenotaph and appearing to tear the Union flag. He has since apologised.
However, the media focus on the violence meant that valid arguments by peacefully protesting students were largely ignored.
Then, there was the inevitable over-reaction to events. The Daily Mail wrote that Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson implied the protesters were lucky not to be shot, and Home Secretary Theresa May decried the "appalling level of violence".
But Ms May must know that this was nowhere near as bad as the series of scuffles surrounding the Miners' Strike in 1984-85 or the Poll Tax riots in 1990.
What it did show is that, while the government may have won the vote against an unfocused opposition inside the House, they seem to have lost the argument outside of it.
That has already been bad news for the Lib Dems but the pressure may yet start to tell on the Tories - and Ms May might start to see something closer to the reality of her original quote.
FOR THE RECORD: HOW THEY VOTED
LIB DEMS VOTING FOR TUITION FEE RISES (28)
All Liberal Democrat ministers present voted for a rise in tuition fees including Vince Cable, the Business Secretary who tabled the motion, Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander. Government Whip Mark Hunter was a teller which means he supported the government but his name will not appear on the "yes" division list in Hansard.
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Norman Baker (Lewes)
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley)
Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington)
Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane)
Malcolm Bruce (Gordon)
Paul Burstow (Sutton & Cheam)
Vincent Cable (Twickenham)
Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland)
Nick Clegg (Sheffield Hallam)
Edward Davey (Kingston & Surbiton)
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey & Wood Green)
Don Foster (Bath)
Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay)
Duncan Hames (Chippenham)
Nick Harvey (Devon North)
David Heath (Somerton & Frome)
John Hemming (Birmingham Yardley)
Mark Hunter (Cheadle)
Norman Lamb (Norfolk North)
David Laws (Yeovil)
Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk)
Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove)
Jo Swinson (Dunbartonshire East)
Sarah Teather (Brent Central)
David Ward (Bradford East)
Steve Webb (Thornbury and Yate)
LIB DEMS VOTING AGAINST TUITION FEE RISES (21)
Former Lib Dem leaders Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy voted against the rise in tuition fees. Michael Crockart resigned his position as parliamentary aide to Michael Moore, the Scottish Secretary. Jenny Willott resigned her position as parliamentary aide to Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Secretary.
Annette Brooke (Dorset Mid & Poole North)
Sir Menzies Campbell (Fife North East)
Michael Crockart (Edinburgh West)
Tim Farron (Westmorland & Lonsdale)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South)
Julian Huppert (Cambridge)
Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye & Lochaber)
John Leech (Manchester Withington)
Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne)
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West)
John Pugh (Southport)
Alan Reid (Argyll & Bute)
Dan Rogerson (Cornwall North)
Bob Russell (Colchester)
Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Ian Swales (Redcar)
Mark Williams (Ceredigion)
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire)
Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central)
Simon Wright (Norwich South)
LIB DEMS WHO DID NOT VOTE (8)
Eight Liberal Democrat MPs did not vote. Six abstained and another two - Martin Horwood and Chris Huhne - were abroad in Cancun for the climate change conference. Horwood is expected to have voted against the proposals but Huhne, as a minister, would have voted for.
Lorely Burt (Solihull), abstained
Martin Horwood (Cheltenham), abroad
Simon Hughes (Bermondsey & Old Southwark), abstained
Chris Huhne (Eastleigh), abroad
Tessa Munt (Wells), abstained
Sir Robert Smith (Aberdeenshire W and Kincardine), abstained
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross), abstained
Stephen Williams (Bristol West), abstained
TORY REBELS VOTING AGAINST RISE IN TUITION FEES (6)
There were six Conservative MPs who voted against the rise in tuition fees. Additionally, Lee Scott resigned as parliamentary aide to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, having abstained from voting. For the record, the rebels were:
Philip Davies (Shipley)
David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden)
Julian Lewis (New Forest East)
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley)
Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole)
Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood)
That, for the purpose of section 24 of the Higher Education Act 2004, the higher amount should be increased to £9,000, and to £4,500 in the cases described in regulation 5 of the draft regulations in Command Paper Cm 7986, and that the increase should take effect from 1 September 2012.
Result: Ayes (for) 323 Noes (against) 302
Government majority: 21
TUITION fees at some universities could rise to as much as £9,000 a year after the coalition government survived a backbench rebellion to win a narrow victory.
The government had its majority cut by three-quarters as 21 Lib Dem MPs and six Conservative MPs opposed the motion in the Commons last week.
But the support of Lib Dem ministers, gained earlier in the week when party leader Nick Clegg earned some concessions, was vital in pushing through the measure.
That support will prove controversial at a grassroots level in the party as the original coalition agreement allowed Lib Dems to abstain.
However, with the measure having been introduced by Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Lib Dem, the Tories accused their junior coalition partners of not putting their whole weight behind the government.
As a result, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg got all of his ministers on side but this meant there was a clear three-way split at the highest levels of his party.
While Mr Clegg, Mr Cable and the other ministers voted for a rise in tuition fees, party president Tim Farron was among the 21 Lib Dem MPs to vote against.
Deputy leader of the party Simon Hughes abstained along with five others and two MPs - Chris Huhne and Martin Horwood - were at the Cancun climate summit and could not attend.
Calls for unity by Mr Clegg look optimistic at best and the split between front-bench and back-bench Lib Dem MPs has damaged the party in the public eye.
Moreover, the fact that the measure ultimately relied on Lib Dem support hardly helped either.
Energy Secretary Mr Huhne admitted so much in saying that the party was "going to go through a period of immense unpopularity".
And the vote seems to have had an effect on the Lib Dems' already dreadful poll rating as it tumbled even further last week.
A showing of just 8% in YouGov's daily tracker last Wednesday was their lowest level of support for the party since September 1990.
If the figure was applied in a general election, the Lib Dems would be left with just a handful of seats, and it is becoming harder and harder for many supporters to see the value of them being in this coalition.
Indeed, former director of policy Richard Grayson has suggested the Lib Dems have moved too far to the right and need to re-engage with Labour.
Ed Miliband, the recently-elected Labour leader, acted swiftly on Mr Grayson's article, offering Lib Dems the chance to have an input on Labour's policy review.
But, even Mr Farron, who voted against the rise in fees, called the move "desperate" and it certainly looks that way as Mr Miliband deals with some early struggles.
Although Labour remain steady in the polls, unlike the flailing Lib Dems, members of Mr Miliband's own party still seem uncertain about his position.
Anthony Wells on UK Polling report writes: "19% of current Labour supporters and 21% of people who voted Labour in 2010 think that Ed Miliband isn’t up to it. 23% of Labour supporters aren’t sure.
"Asked whether Ed or David Miliband would have made the better leader, 36% of Labour supporters think David would have been better, 26% think Ed was the right choice."
Ed Miliband's weak performances as the Despatch Box in Prime Minister's Questions will not have helped.
But his low personal rating can be probably more easily attributed to his party's incoherence on this issue of tuition fees.
Mr Miliband and his Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson took opposing views on the alternative policy of a graduate tax before Mr Johnson made an unconvincing U-turn to support his leader.
In the supposed new era for the party which went beyond the rivalry of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and against an unpopular coalition policy to boot - Labour looked lost in opposition.
Only the Conservatives can be happy with the way the vote went and - even then - it was a stark reminder of their failure to gain an overall majority and the resultant reliance on the Lib Dems.
It should also be noted that the policy was not unanimously supported by the Tories with former party leadership candidate David Davis the highest-profile of the six rebels.
Mr Davis comes from a working class background and said he was worried that the enormous fees - while not paid up front - would still put off genuinely talented people from going to university.
This opposition from the likes of Mr Davies, and former Lib Dem leaders Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell, suggests to me that the motion to defer the decision should have also been put to the vote.
But the speaker John Bercow rejected this alternative and so died the last remaining hope for students, school pupils and academic staff.
Unsurprisingly, the result saw the all-day student protest in London take a turn for the worse.
The stories in the newspapers centred on this and the news-desks got their 'money-shot' when Prince Charles and Camilla, showing incredibly little tact, were caught up in the violence in their car.
Elsewhere, the statue of Winston Churchill was shamefully daubed with graffiti while Charlie Gilmour - the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David - was arrested after climbing on the Cenotaph and appearing to tear the Union flag. He has since apologised.
However, the media focus on the violence meant that valid arguments by peacefully protesting students were largely ignored.
Then, there was the inevitable over-reaction to events. The Daily Mail wrote that Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson implied the protesters were lucky not to be shot, and Home Secretary Theresa May decried the "appalling level of violence".
But Ms May must know that this was nowhere near as bad as the series of scuffles surrounding the Miners' Strike in 1984-85 or the Poll Tax riots in 1990.
What it did show is that, while the government may have won the vote against an unfocused opposition inside the House, they seem to have lost the argument outside of it.
That has already been bad news for the Lib Dems but the pressure may yet start to tell on the Tories - and Ms May might start to see something closer to the reality of her original quote.
FOR THE RECORD: HOW THEY VOTED
LIB DEMS VOTING FOR TUITION FEE RISES (28)
All Liberal Democrat ministers present voted for a rise in tuition fees including Vince Cable, the Business Secretary who tabled the motion, Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander. Government Whip Mark Hunter was a teller which means he supported the government but his name will not appear on the "yes" division list in Hansard.
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Norman Baker (Lewes)
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley)
Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington)
Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane)
Malcolm Bruce (Gordon)
Paul Burstow (Sutton & Cheam)
Vincent Cable (Twickenham)
Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland)
Nick Clegg (Sheffield Hallam)
Edward Davey (Kingston & Surbiton)
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey & Wood Green)
Don Foster (Bath)
Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay)
Duncan Hames (Chippenham)
Nick Harvey (Devon North)
David Heath (Somerton & Frome)
John Hemming (Birmingham Yardley)
Mark Hunter (Cheadle)
Norman Lamb (Norfolk North)
David Laws (Yeovil)
Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk)
Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove)
Jo Swinson (Dunbartonshire East)
Sarah Teather (Brent Central)
David Ward (Bradford East)
Steve Webb (Thornbury and Yate)
LIB DEMS VOTING AGAINST TUITION FEE RISES (21)
Former Lib Dem leaders Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy voted against the rise in tuition fees. Michael Crockart resigned his position as parliamentary aide to Michael Moore, the Scottish Secretary. Jenny Willott resigned her position as parliamentary aide to Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Secretary.
Annette Brooke (Dorset Mid & Poole North)
Sir Menzies Campbell (Fife North East)
Michael Crockart (Edinburgh West)
Tim Farron (Westmorland & Lonsdale)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South)
Julian Huppert (Cambridge)
Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye & Lochaber)
John Leech (Manchester Withington)
Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne)
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West)
John Pugh (Southport)
Alan Reid (Argyll & Bute)
Dan Rogerson (Cornwall North)
Bob Russell (Colchester)
Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Ian Swales (Redcar)
Mark Williams (Ceredigion)
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire)
Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central)
Simon Wright (Norwich South)
LIB DEMS WHO DID NOT VOTE (8)
Eight Liberal Democrat MPs did not vote. Six abstained and another two - Martin Horwood and Chris Huhne - were abroad in Cancun for the climate change conference. Horwood is expected to have voted against the proposals but Huhne, as a minister, would have voted for.
Lorely Burt (Solihull), abstained
Martin Horwood (Cheltenham), abroad
Simon Hughes (Bermondsey & Old Southwark), abstained
Chris Huhne (Eastleigh), abroad
Tessa Munt (Wells), abstained
Sir Robert Smith (Aberdeenshire W and Kincardine), abstained
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross), abstained
Stephen Williams (Bristol West), abstained
TORY REBELS VOTING AGAINST RISE IN TUITION FEES (6)
There were six Conservative MPs who voted against the rise in tuition fees. Additionally, Lee Scott resigned as parliamentary aide to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, having abstained from voting. For the record, the rebels were:
Philip Davies (Shipley)
David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden)
Julian Lewis (New Forest East)
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley)
Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole)
Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood)
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Pard times in Ashley's Orwellian dystopia
ALAN PARDEW was today announced as the new Newcastle United manager after the sensational sacking of Chris Hughton on Monday.The former Reading, West Ham United, Charlton Athletic and Southampton boss has signed a ludicrous five-and-a-half year deal which is meant to keep him at the club until 2016.
But Pardew arrives amid understandable fan unrest after his alleged complicity in Mike Ashley's decision to fire Hughton.
According to the BBC, Ashley and Pardew had been plotting to remove Hughton for weeks having become friends at one of chairman Derek Llambias' casinos in London.
Media sources suggested Hughton was on the brink in October before a last-minute Fabricio Coloccini goal rescued a point in a 2-2 home draw against Wigan Athletic.
I dismissed rumours of Hughton being fired as paper talk at the time and he then led the team to successive league wins over West Ham United, Sunderland and Arsenal.
Earlier in the season, there had been a 6-0 win over Aston Villa, and away wins at Everton in the league and Chelsea in the Carling Cup.
There had also been some disappointing days - defeats to Blackpool, Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers as well as draws against Wigan and Fulham, all at home.
Newcastle have also only taken two points from their last five games and suffered a painful 5-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers and a 3-1 loss against West Bromwich Albion.
But Hughton left with his head held high having won the Championship with a club record points total and guided the Magpies to mid table this term - four points off relegation but only four points off 7th place.
Disgustingly, it still wasn't good enough for Ashley and the board released a statement on Monday afternoon, axing Hughton citing his inexperience at the top level.
Yet, despite this call for an experienced head, it is Ashley's mate Pardew who has walked through the revolving doors at St James Park to become the owner's sixth permanent boss in three years.
And so, Ashley opens another chapter in this Orwellian tale which is in no threat of concluding soon.
The choice of Pardew has stunned Tyneside and, indeed, football in general but - as part of the Inner Circle - he was the obvious choice to Ashley.
Expect Pardew to toe the party line as Ashley continues cost-cutting in the transfer windows, just as Joe Kinnear was happy to comply after his similarly stunning appointment in 2008.
It's all just a little bit of history repeating. Or worse, this could be another case of Ashley airbrushing history - just like George Orwell's Big Brother in Nineteen-Eighty-Four.
At one point in the Ashley regime, Newcastle had been looking to emulate Arsenal before that was downgraded to Aston Villa.
With the Magpies sitting 12th in the Premier League at Christmas in 2008 under Kinnear, Ashley wrote in the programme for the match against Liverpool on 28th December.
He asked: "If, like me, you like a gamble now and again then what price a flutter on us reaching that top six?"
Well, you would have got decent odds after the match. Newcastle lost 5-1, Shay Given and Charles N'Zogbia soon left, and United were relegated having had four different managers across the campaign.
Ironically, it was during the relegation season that Newcastle drew up the five-year plan to regain their competitiveness in the top flight by emulating Villa.
A five-year plan? You couldn't make it up - it was like something from the Communist Party in Soviet Russia which Orwell so wonderfully parodied.
Now the five-year plan seems to have been ditched after just two years - with a new Pardew-led five-and-a-half-year plan put in its place.
Just as Orwell's protagonist Winston Smith changed the records at the Ministry of Truth to show that Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia rather than Eastasia, or vice versa, so Ashley doctors the club's history to his benefit.
Meanwhile, half-truths and downright lies are spoon-fed to a largely acquiescent local press at the same time as Ashley shuts off the channels of communication elsewhere.
The tribunal which happened as a result of Kevin Keegan's dismissal concluded that "the club admitted that it repeatedly and intentionally misled the press, public and the fans of Newcastle United".
This latest episode proves that nothing has changed - and it never will while Ashley remains in charge.
Of course, the worst part of it all is that the fans - or, perhaps, the proles as Ashley sees us - are powerless to his whims.
Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength and Newcastle United are doomed.
Friday, 3 December 2010
The Ashes 2010/11: Clinical England complete thumping win in double-quick time
Result: England 620-5dec beat Australia 245 & 304 by an innings and 71 runs
Scorecard - BBC, Cricinfo
ENGLAND went 1-0 up in the Ashes with three matches to play after inflicting a thumping innings defeat on Australia in the second Test at Adelaide.
The tourists took less than 90 minutes on the final morning of the match to claim the last six Australian wickets in one of the most comprehensive Test victories in Ashes history.
Australia resumed on 238-4, still trailing England by 137 runs after losing their fourth wicket to the last ball on the fourth day when Michael Clarke was caught by Alastair Cook off Kevin Pietersen.
But the Aussies hoped they would still be able to come out with a frankly undeserved draw if Mike Hussey and Marcus North or Brad Haddin could produce a match-saving partnership.
An even bigger threat to England came from the forecast for rain but, at the start of play in day five, there was sunshine and idyllic blue skies above Adelaide.
However, the onus was still on the tourists to get the job done quickly.
England delivered on that front, and it meant they had dominated all five days of this match and the last two days of the previous one in Brisbane.
Steven Finn made the early breakthrough to become the leading wicket-taker on nine in this series alongside Graeme Swann - and this one was of particularly huge importance.
The dangerous Hussey had just made another 50 when he top-edged a shorter ball from Finn in an attempting a pull shot, only to see it fall into the hands of James Anderson at mid-on.
It did not take long for Haddin to fall next after Anderson, bowling another brilliant spell, drew him forward and induced an inside edge which was caught behind by Matt Prior.
Haddin had departed for just 12 and it looked like the beginning of the end for Australia who were 286-6.
Anderson then put himself on a hat-trick with his next ball as Ryan Harris became only the second ever Australian - after Adam Gilchrist - to get a king pair in Test cricket.
Harris, who was out lbw to Swann in the first innings, was trapped in front on his first ball again, offering no shot. Umpire Erasmus gave him out but Harris requested a video referral.
It showed exactly what England would want to see - an impact in line with the stumps to a ball pinning him back far enough to hit the top of them. Harris was out and he had burned one of Australia's reviews.
England made much better use of the review system two balls later when umpire Hill failed to heed a big shout by Swann for another lbw on North.
The replay again showed exactly what England had hoped to see: the ball hit pad before bat and it had been pitched in-line, hitting the stumps halfway up.
North was gone for 22 and Australia - who had failed to add a single run for the last three wickets - were 286-8.
Somehow Swann failed to pick up a second wicket in that over despite the fact that the ball came off the back of new batsmen Peter Siddle's foot and hit the stumps. Somehow, the ball had failed to dislodge the bails.
But, by this stage, England were so far on top that there was an air of inevitability about proceedings and, though Xavier Doherty bravely defended Anderson's hat-trick ball, he had no answer to Swann's spin.
Swann took an even more perfect off-spinners wicket to complete the victory, bowling Siddle through the gate and clipping the top of off-stump.
It meant that the Notts spinner ended the innings with 5-91, remarkably his 10th Test five-for in just 25 matches.
More importantly, it meant that England were 1-0 up having won a 'live' Ashes match in Australia for the first time since the successful 1986-87 tour.
And, without wanting to get too carried away on the basis of a single victory, England's win was so dominant that this match could be a watershed moment in the teams' rivalry.
It was Australia's first home innings defeat since the West Indies beat them at Perth in 1993 and, effectively, it means that England should expect more regular victories Down Under if the gap in quality between the two sides remains so stark.
This was the perfect session from England at the end of a perfect game. The only blot on the copybook came off the field with the news that Stuart Broad had sustained a stomach muscle strain and will be out for the rest of the series.
However, even then, England have replacements on tour in Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan.
They will all battle it out for a place in the side for the third Test at Perth in the tour match against Victoria which starts on Friday.
Meanwhile, Australia will expect to make another raft of changes with Simon Katich out injured and Doherty almost certain to be dropped in favour of Nathan Hauritz.
There may be even more victims of the cull after a nightmare match for the Aussies.
Indeed, it was a nightmare from the start for Australia who won the toss, hoping to take advantage of a typically benign Adelaide wicket.
Katich, who is out of the rest of the series with an Achilles tear, was run out without facing a ball and skipper Ricky Ponting and Clarke were soon back in the pavilion.
Australia were 2-3 having made their worst start to a Test match in 60 years.
From there, Hussey steadied the ship with a top score in the innings of 93 but, once he was out with the score on 207-5, Australia's tail failed to wag and they were all out for 245 on the first day.
On days two and three, England showed Australia exactly how to bat in Adelaide as Cook and Jonathan Trott extended an unbeaten partnership which had started in Brisbane to 502 runs.
Cook made 148 and Trott was out for 78 in this Test but the star of the show was Pietersen hit 227 from 308 balls to record the biggest ever score by an England player in Adelaide.
Even when Cook departed, Pietersen was supported by Paul Collingwood who made 42 and Ian Bell who was eventually not out on 68.
And, on the morning of the fourth day, a quickfire partnership from Bell and Prior added another 52 off 34 balls to set up England's declaration on 620-5, only the third time that England had scored more than 600 against Australia.
Better still, England had scored quickly - at more than four an over - and their wonderfully positive batting display left the bowlers with almost two days to claim 10 Aussie wickets.
Australia reached lunch on day four at 78-0 but England burst into life after the interval to claim the wickets of Katich, Ponting and Shane Watson.
Hussey again attempted to steady the hosts and it looked as if he and Clarke would survive into the final day unscathed until Clarke got an inside edge on the last ball of the day.
That late wicket changed the complexion of the final day and it left the Aussies praying for rain or another outstanding partnership by Hussey and Haddin.
But, once those two had left North with the tail, there was thankfully only ever going to be one result.
England have got their just desserts for an outstanding performance over the past five days in which they have outclassed Australia in every department - batting, bowling and fielding.
Take a bow, lads.
EARLIER REPORTS
Day four: Pietersen keeps alive England victory hopes
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] & 238-4 [Clarke 80, Watson 57] v England 620-5d [Pietersen 227, Cook 148, Trott 78, Bell 68*]
KEVIN PIETERSEN took the wicket of Michael Clarke with the last ball of day four as England kept alive their hope of victory in the second Test in Adelaide.
The loss of Clarke, caught by Alastair Cook after a huge inside edge onto his thigh-pad, left Australia on 238-4, still 137 runs behind going into the final day.
Earlier, England had added 69 runs in nine overs to their overnight score of 551-4 with the loss of just one wicket, eventually declaring on 620-5.
It was the first time since 1964 that England had scored more than 600 runs in an innings against the Aussies, and the first time in Australia since 1928.
Indeed, those are the only two previous occasions that England had surpassed 600 in Ashes history.
For this third effort, England were largely indebted to Pietersen but he was finally out for 227 this morning.
Xavier Doherty was the man to take the wicket, the 18th time that Pietersen had got out to left-arm spin in his England Test career.
But, by then, the Surrey batsmen had already racked up his highest score in Tests while Doherty was still left with figures of 1-158. He is unlikely to be seen again in the third Test at Perth.
After Pietersen's departure, Ian Bell was joined in the middle by Matt Prior.
The pair played one-day shots to make a quickfire 52 stand from 34 balls and set up the declaration with the lead at 375 runs, the biggest lead for any touring side in Australia since England in February 1975.
The pressure now passed to the Aussies but the openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich coped well early on.
Only Graeme Swann looked particularly threatening though James Anderson and Stuart Broad both bowled tight lines to restrict Australia to 78-0 at lunch.
It was really no surprise that it was Swann who struck straight after lunch, Katich getting the faintest edge behind Prior to depart for 43.
But the Notts spinner had only just started and Aussie skipper Ponting was his next victim, caught in the slips by Paul Collingwood for just nine to complete a miserable match for him.
In the meantime, Watson had progressed tentatively to a half-century but the Queenslander is notorious for failing to convert his starts and once again he failed to kick on.
Young Steven Finn did the trick, dismissing the opener for 57 with Strauss taking the catch in the slips, making it the 13th time out of 15 that Watson has hit 50 but not recorded a century.
After that, Australia enjoyed their best period of the match so far, adding more than 100 for the fourth wicket as Clarke and Mike Hussey gradually reduced the arrears.
But, with the partnership on 104, Pietersen produced perhaps the pivotal moment as Clarke misread his off-spin from the final delivery of the day.
The wicket gives England real hope that they can complete a deserved victory in a Test which they have dominated for four days.
Indeed, if the bowlers can pull it off, it would be England's first meaningful away victory over Australia since the 1986-87 tour which was the last time England won a series Down Under.
However, Strauss' men face hurdles in the form of an obdurate Hussey and an unsettled weather forecast if they are to achieve their aim.
Six Aussie wickets stand between England a 1-0 away Ashes lead and it would help England's cause dearly if those wickets fell for fewer than the 137 runs which remain as a lead.
Find out from 11pm on SkySports 1 if the tourists can take that giant stride towards retaining the little urn.
Day three: Pietersen pulverises Aussies as England extend lead
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 551-4 [Pietersen 213*, Cook 148, Trott 78]
KEVIN PIETERSEN scored an unbeaten double-century as England amassed a huge lead over Australia by batting through the curtailed third day of the second Test in Adelaide.
England closed the day on 551-4, 306 runs ahead, as Pietersen took over from where Cook left off for a welcome first three-figure score in Tests since March 2009.
Cook was finally out shortly after the resumption of play on day three, edging a fine Ryan Harris delivery to Brad Haddin behind the stumps for 148.
The wicket brought Cook's extraordinary series average tumbling down from 450 to a still remarkable 225.
It also finally extended the period in which Cook had not been on the field of play in this whole series beyond 11 overs. If anyone deserved to put their feet up for the rest of the day, it was the Essex man.
By the time Cook was dismissed, Pietersen had easily survived a ridiculous video referral for lbw which reeked of Aussie desperation as the ball clearly pitched outside of off-stump.
And the new Surrey batsmen had also brought up his first Test century since his injury and a subsequent loss of form.
It would seem that KP is back to his imperious best as he was joined in the middle by first Paul Collingwood and then Ian Bell.
Collingwood made a neat 42, taking England beyond 400 by lunch, before the Durham veteran was trapped lbw by Shane Watson at the start of the second session.
Bell then took up the supporting role, scoring an unbeaten 41, as Pietersen pushed England past the 500 mark with just less than an hour before tea.
It was the first time that England had scored successive totals of more than 500 since the 2002 series against Sri Lanka, and the first time ever against Australia.
For good measure, Pietersen and Bell added another 51 runs - and Pietersen brought up his double-ton with a single off Xavier Doherty - before the rain came to save the Aussie bowlers from a further flogging.
This is not a match which any of Australia's bowlers will remember fondly. Three of them - Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle and Doherty - have now gone for at least 100 runs.
Doherty's 0-120 off 24 overs makes for particularly painful reading while Bollinger has 1-121 off 27 and Siddle has 0-100 off 26.
Harris has been the pick of the punch with 2-84 off 29 overs while Watson has not done too badly to take 1-44 off 19.
However, this has been a woeful effort overall from Australia whose frequent misfields have betrayed their lack of confidence.
It could yet be that the Aussies are saved by rain. There was no play on the third day after tea and further unsettled weather is forecasted for the final two days.
If England are beaten by the weather and only manage a draw, it would go down as one of the most unjustified results in Ashes history.
England have dominated this Test match since its first over when Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting were dismissed. Cook, Pietersen and James Anderson have all been magnificent.
So, for time reasons, Andrew Strauss should declare on 551-4 before the start of play on day four as there is no way England are going to get bowled out by this Aussie 'attack'.
It would maximise the amount of time for Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Graeme Swann to bowl Australia out again, most probably for an innings victory.
Pietersen has noted that the Adelaide pitch has started to deteriorate and turn, which could be the cue for Swann to make his first big impression on the series.
And for psychological and historical reasons, declaring on a score of 551 would go a long way to burying the Test which England tossed away in Adelaide four years ago.
Then, England declared on 551-6 before being bowled out for 127 in their second innings on their way to losing by six wickets.
Of course, there is a no danger of a repeat of that this time.
Day two: Majestic England take complete control
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 317-2 [Cook 136*, Pietersen 85*, Trott 78]
ENGLAND showed Australia how to bat in Adelaide as the tourists took complete control on the second day of the second Test.
More big records fell to opener Alastair Cook, and he was ably supported again by Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, as England closed on 317-2, already a lead of 72.
Essex left-hander Cook overtook Wally Hammond to hold the England record for the most runs without dismissal and he is also now ahead of Nasser Hussain for minutes batted without being out.
For the record, Cook has scored 371 runs over 1022 minutes since the second innings in Brisbane.
But the morning actually did not start well for England and captain Andrew Strauss was out for one in the first over of the day as the Aussies looked for early wickets to forge a comeback.
Strauss misjudged a good length delivery from Doug Bollinger thinking the bounce off the pitch would take it over the wickets when, in fact, it clipped the top of off-stump.
England could have been two wickets down as Trott survived on two separate occasions shortly afterwards.
First, Trott set off for a single that was never there and was only saved by Xavier Doherty's failure to replicate Trott's fine throw from square leg.
Then, three overs later, Trott presented a thick outside edge to Mike Hussey at gully off Bollinger but the Western Australia man put down the straight-forward chance.
But, having ridden his luck in the early part of his innings, Trott was able to reprise the big partnership which he held with Cook at Brisbane.
There, the pair compiled an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 329, the highest partnership for any wicket in Tests at the Gabba.
This time in Adelaide, Cook and Trott put on 173, taking England well beyond lunch and breaking the record stand for any wicket by an English pair in Adelaide.
Over the two innings together, the two men had scored 502 runs over almost 10 hours of play and, all the while, Pietersen had sat in the pavilion with his pads on in case of wicket.
To the relief of the home support, their odyssey was finally over shortly before tea as Trott, on 78, attempted a misjudged loft over midwicket off Ryan Harris' bowling, only to be caught by Michael Clarke.
Pietersen emerged to pantomime villain boos before going on to play a similar innings to Trott - skittish at the start then growing in composure.
It is only fair to expect Pietersen to be a little nervous after waiting so long to make an appearance and the Aussies focused all their attention on getting the talisman out cheaply.
Skipper Ricky Ponting brought on the left-arm spin of Doherty, Pietersen's Achilles' heel, and even allowed Cook a 'free' single to bring his new partner on strike.
It was one of a myriad of slightly odd decisions made by Ponting who went through a spell, most probably in desperation, of asking his bowlers to bowl short to all sorts of unorthodox fields.
Needless to say, none of it worked and England reached tea on 198-2, a deficit of just 47.
After the interval, there was more of the same for England. Indeed, it got easier still for the tourists as the hosts tired in the field, their bowlers unable to make a further breakthrough.
England scored 119 runs in the final session and Cook brought up his 15th Test century with a cut through backward point before Pietersen recorded his 21st half-century with an on-drive.
England finished the day in an almost unassailable position at 317-2 and a huge first innings lead looms if Cook continues his vigil at the crease throughout the third day.
It looks as if Australia will have to bat the best part of two days, perhaps slightly more, just to get a draw from this match.
Of course, England pulled off that feat at Brisbane and carried through their form to Adelaide.
But these are unusually testing times for Australia and their second innings will give England's bowling attack a massive chance to prove its worth again.
Day one: England capitalise on cracking start
(close): Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 1-0
JAMES ANDERSON gave England a brilliant start to the second Test as the tourists took control at Adelaide by bowling Australia out on the first day.
Anderson spearheaded the bowling attack, striking from the start and eventually taking figures of 4-51 as England dominated.
The narrative of this match comes somewhat as a surprise after Australia won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat on a wicket which has become notorious for being as flat as a road.
But, within 15 minutes of play starting, the hosts were in turmoil at 2-3 having made their worst start to a Test innings since 1950.
The first wicket fell to the fourth ball of the day but had nothing to do with the pitch as Simon Katich was run out for 0.
Katich's had hesitated on his run and it cost him dearly as he became the first opener in Ashes Tests since Wayne Phillips in 1984 to be out without having even received a ball.
But much credit must be given to Jonathan Trott for a tremendous throw which directly hit the side of stumps from 15 yards.
It was 0-2 after the next ball as Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting went for a golden duck, edging Anderson to Graeme Swann at second slip.
And the same two players combined again in the third over, as the out-of-form Michael Clarke edged to Swann off Anderson for 2.
At this point, Watson was joined in the middle by Mike Hussey who just fell short of a double-ton in Brisbane, but England were still sensing more early wickets.
Watson survived an lbw shout as England blew their first video referral on a ball that was in-line but always too high to hit the stumps.
Then Hussey had two narrow escapes. First, Anderson could not hold on to an extremely tough catch down to his left off his own bowling.
And, shortly afterwards, another edge off Anderson fell just short of Swann who was already looking for his third catch.
However, having seen off the threat of the new ball, Watson and Hussey belatedly settled down and started playing some decent shots to build a much-needed 92 partnership.
That took the Aussies to 94-3 at lunch but England knew they would remain in control of the match with another flurry of wickets at the start of the second session.
The early wicket duly arrived and Anderson claimed his third victim of the Test when Watson sliced a ball wide of off-stump straight to Kevin Pietersen at gully.
But Hussey was gently easing Australia back into the match and even under pressure man Marcus North seemed to benefit from his presence.
Hussey and North were eyeing the tea break having taken Australia past 150 but North could not survive, edging behind to wicket-keeper Matt Prior off the bowling of Steven Finn.
That left the Aussies on 159-5 at tea but North's dismissal also reunited Hussey with Brad Haddin, the pair having enjoyed a partnership worth 307 runs in Brisbane.
In a post-tea lull for England, Hussey and Haddin again looked solid, taking Australia beyond 200. However, this time, the partnership lasted a mere 51 runs as Hussey fell short of a landmark again.
After scoring 193 in the first Test, Hussey was out for 93 on this occasion, edging Swann's spin to Paul Collingwood at slip.
And Swann then put himself in with the chance of the second hat-trick of this Ashes series by trapping Ryan Harris lbw on his first ball.
Harris requested a video referral, claiming there was an inside edge, but hot-spot showed no evidence of this and he became the Aussies' third duck of the innings.
Xavier Doherty survived the hat-trick ball but those two quick wickets left Australia back in serious trouble at 207-7.
Shortly afterwards, the roof well and truly fell in on Aussie attempts to post a creditable score as Doherty was run out for six on a dreadful day between the wickets for the hosts.
Like Katich at the start of the day, Doherty appeared stuck in quicksand as Haddin called for a single, leaving Andrew Strauss with enough time to find Alastair Cook at short-leg. Cook passed the ball to Prior who whipped off the bails to leave Australia on 226-8.
Peter Siddle was next to go for three as Anderson re-entered the fray to claim his fourth wicket of the day, Cook taking the catch at midwicket.
And it was all over in the next over when Haddin skied a Stuart Broad delivery into the hands of Finn for only Broad's second wicket of the series so far.
England had bowled magnificently - all four bowlers took at least one wicket - and Anderson was the star of the show thanks to his aggressive bowling with the new ball.
Fears that neither of these teams would be able to take 20 wickets in a match have been allayed in the England camp, for now at least, and the onus has passed onto the batsmen.
Strauss, Cook and Trott all made big scores in Brisbane to ensure the first Test was a draw but Australia's sub-par score means that this is a big chance for a first meaningful away win in the Ashes since 1987.
England will be looking to their top-order players to carry their form into this match to take it out of reach for the Aussies.
After all, only a small lead may not be enough when considering the fact that it would leave plenty of a time in a game in which England would have to bat last and chase down a score.
But, at this point, the pressure is massively on Australia and their modified bowling attack, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus having been replaced by Harris and Doug Bollinger.
Ponting really needs his bowlers to deliver for him this time, and the Aussie skipper showed the strain by firing a few angry words in the direction of Strauss as England walked off on 1-0 at the close.
It always looks good for a team when they have the opposition captain rattled and England would seem to have Australia right where they want them.
Scorecard - BBC, Cricinfo
ENGLAND went 1-0 up in the Ashes with three matches to play after inflicting a thumping innings defeat on Australia in the second Test at Adelaide.
The tourists took less than 90 minutes on the final morning of the match to claim the last six Australian wickets in one of the most comprehensive Test victories in Ashes history.
Australia resumed on 238-4, still trailing England by 137 runs after losing their fourth wicket to the last ball on the fourth day when Michael Clarke was caught by Alastair Cook off Kevin Pietersen.
But the Aussies hoped they would still be able to come out with a frankly undeserved draw if Mike Hussey and Marcus North or Brad Haddin could produce a match-saving partnership.
An even bigger threat to England came from the forecast for rain but, at the start of play in day five, there was sunshine and idyllic blue skies above Adelaide.
However, the onus was still on the tourists to get the job done quickly.
England delivered on that front, and it meant they had dominated all five days of this match and the last two days of the previous one in Brisbane.
Steven Finn made the early breakthrough to become the leading wicket-taker on nine in this series alongside Graeme Swann - and this one was of particularly huge importance.
The dangerous Hussey had just made another 50 when he top-edged a shorter ball from Finn in an attempting a pull shot, only to see it fall into the hands of James Anderson at mid-on.
It did not take long for Haddin to fall next after Anderson, bowling another brilliant spell, drew him forward and induced an inside edge which was caught behind by Matt Prior.
Haddin had departed for just 12 and it looked like the beginning of the end for Australia who were 286-6.
Anderson then put himself on a hat-trick with his next ball as Ryan Harris became only the second ever Australian - after Adam Gilchrist - to get a king pair in Test cricket.
Harris, who was out lbw to Swann in the first innings, was trapped in front on his first ball again, offering no shot. Umpire Erasmus gave him out but Harris requested a video referral.
It showed exactly what England would want to see - an impact in line with the stumps to a ball pinning him back far enough to hit the top of them. Harris was out and he had burned one of Australia's reviews.
England made much better use of the review system two balls later when umpire Hill failed to heed a big shout by Swann for another lbw on North.
The replay again showed exactly what England had hoped to see: the ball hit pad before bat and it had been pitched in-line, hitting the stumps halfway up.
North was gone for 22 and Australia - who had failed to add a single run for the last three wickets - were 286-8.
Somehow Swann failed to pick up a second wicket in that over despite the fact that the ball came off the back of new batsmen Peter Siddle's foot and hit the stumps. Somehow, the ball had failed to dislodge the bails.
But, by this stage, England were so far on top that there was an air of inevitability about proceedings and, though Xavier Doherty bravely defended Anderson's hat-trick ball, he had no answer to Swann's spin.
Swann took an even more perfect off-spinners wicket to complete the victory, bowling Siddle through the gate and clipping the top of off-stump.
It meant that the Notts spinner ended the innings with 5-91, remarkably his 10th Test five-for in just 25 matches.
More importantly, it meant that England were 1-0 up having won a 'live' Ashes match in Australia for the first time since the successful 1986-87 tour.
And, without wanting to get too carried away on the basis of a single victory, England's win was so dominant that this match could be a watershed moment in the teams' rivalry.
It was Australia's first home innings defeat since the West Indies beat them at Perth in 1993 and, effectively, it means that England should expect more regular victories Down Under if the gap in quality between the two sides remains so stark.
This was the perfect session from England at the end of a perfect game. The only blot on the copybook came off the field with the news that Stuart Broad had sustained a stomach muscle strain and will be out for the rest of the series.
However, even then, England have replacements on tour in Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan.
They will all battle it out for a place in the side for the third Test at Perth in the tour match against Victoria which starts on Friday.
Meanwhile, Australia will expect to make another raft of changes with Simon Katich out injured and Doherty almost certain to be dropped in favour of Nathan Hauritz.
There may be even more victims of the cull after a nightmare match for the Aussies.
Indeed, it was a nightmare from the start for Australia who won the toss, hoping to take advantage of a typically benign Adelaide wicket.
Katich, who is out of the rest of the series with an Achilles tear, was run out without facing a ball and skipper Ricky Ponting and Clarke were soon back in the pavilion.
Australia were 2-3 having made their worst start to a Test match in 60 years.
From there, Hussey steadied the ship with a top score in the innings of 93 but, once he was out with the score on 207-5, Australia's tail failed to wag and they were all out for 245 on the first day.
On days two and three, England showed Australia exactly how to bat in Adelaide as Cook and Jonathan Trott extended an unbeaten partnership which had started in Brisbane to 502 runs.
Cook made 148 and Trott was out for 78 in this Test but the star of the show was Pietersen hit 227 from 308 balls to record the biggest ever score by an England player in Adelaide.
Even when Cook departed, Pietersen was supported by Paul Collingwood who made 42 and Ian Bell who was eventually not out on 68.
And, on the morning of the fourth day, a quickfire partnership from Bell and Prior added another 52 off 34 balls to set up England's declaration on 620-5, only the third time that England had scored more than 600 against Australia.
Better still, England had scored quickly - at more than four an over - and their wonderfully positive batting display left the bowlers with almost two days to claim 10 Aussie wickets.
Australia reached lunch on day four at 78-0 but England burst into life after the interval to claim the wickets of Katich, Ponting and Shane Watson.
Hussey again attempted to steady the hosts and it looked as if he and Clarke would survive into the final day unscathed until Clarke got an inside edge on the last ball of the day.
That late wicket changed the complexion of the final day and it left the Aussies praying for rain or another outstanding partnership by Hussey and Haddin.
But, once those two had left North with the tail, there was thankfully only ever going to be one result.
England have got their just desserts for an outstanding performance over the past five days in which they have outclassed Australia in every department - batting, bowling and fielding.
Take a bow, lads.
EARLIER REPORTS
Day four: Pietersen keeps alive England victory hopes
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] & 238-4 [Clarke 80, Watson 57] v England 620-5d [Pietersen 227, Cook 148, Trott 78, Bell 68*]
KEVIN PIETERSEN took the wicket of Michael Clarke with the last ball of day four as England kept alive their hope of victory in the second Test in Adelaide.
The loss of Clarke, caught by Alastair Cook after a huge inside edge onto his thigh-pad, left Australia on 238-4, still 137 runs behind going into the final day.
Earlier, England had added 69 runs in nine overs to their overnight score of 551-4 with the loss of just one wicket, eventually declaring on 620-5.
It was the first time since 1964 that England had scored more than 600 runs in an innings against the Aussies, and the first time in Australia since 1928.
Indeed, those are the only two previous occasions that England had surpassed 600 in Ashes history.
For this third effort, England were largely indebted to Pietersen but he was finally out for 227 this morning.
Xavier Doherty was the man to take the wicket, the 18th time that Pietersen had got out to left-arm spin in his England Test career.
But, by then, the Surrey batsmen had already racked up his highest score in Tests while Doherty was still left with figures of 1-158. He is unlikely to be seen again in the third Test at Perth.
After Pietersen's departure, Ian Bell was joined in the middle by Matt Prior.
The pair played one-day shots to make a quickfire 52 stand from 34 balls and set up the declaration with the lead at 375 runs, the biggest lead for any touring side in Australia since England in February 1975.
The pressure now passed to the Aussies but the openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich coped well early on.
Only Graeme Swann looked particularly threatening though James Anderson and Stuart Broad both bowled tight lines to restrict Australia to 78-0 at lunch.
It was really no surprise that it was Swann who struck straight after lunch, Katich getting the faintest edge behind Prior to depart for 43.
But the Notts spinner had only just started and Aussie skipper Ponting was his next victim, caught in the slips by Paul Collingwood for just nine to complete a miserable match for him.
In the meantime, Watson had progressed tentatively to a half-century but the Queenslander is notorious for failing to convert his starts and once again he failed to kick on.
Young Steven Finn did the trick, dismissing the opener for 57 with Strauss taking the catch in the slips, making it the 13th time out of 15 that Watson has hit 50 but not recorded a century.
After that, Australia enjoyed their best period of the match so far, adding more than 100 for the fourth wicket as Clarke and Mike Hussey gradually reduced the arrears.
But, with the partnership on 104, Pietersen produced perhaps the pivotal moment as Clarke misread his off-spin from the final delivery of the day.
The wicket gives England real hope that they can complete a deserved victory in a Test which they have dominated for four days.
Indeed, if the bowlers can pull it off, it would be England's first meaningful away victory over Australia since the 1986-87 tour which was the last time England won a series Down Under.
However, Strauss' men face hurdles in the form of an obdurate Hussey and an unsettled weather forecast if they are to achieve their aim.
Six Aussie wickets stand between England a 1-0 away Ashes lead and it would help England's cause dearly if those wickets fell for fewer than the 137 runs which remain as a lead.
Find out from 11pm on SkySports 1 if the tourists can take that giant stride towards retaining the little urn.
Day three: Pietersen pulverises Aussies as England extend lead
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 551-4 [Pietersen 213*, Cook 148, Trott 78]
KEVIN PIETERSEN scored an unbeaten double-century as England amassed a huge lead over Australia by batting through the curtailed third day of the second Test in Adelaide.
England closed the day on 551-4, 306 runs ahead, as Pietersen took over from where Cook left off for a welcome first three-figure score in Tests since March 2009.
Cook was finally out shortly after the resumption of play on day three, edging a fine Ryan Harris delivery to Brad Haddin behind the stumps for 148.
The wicket brought Cook's extraordinary series average tumbling down from 450 to a still remarkable 225.
It also finally extended the period in which Cook had not been on the field of play in this whole series beyond 11 overs. If anyone deserved to put their feet up for the rest of the day, it was the Essex man.
By the time Cook was dismissed, Pietersen had easily survived a ridiculous video referral for lbw which reeked of Aussie desperation as the ball clearly pitched outside of off-stump.
And the new Surrey batsmen had also brought up his first Test century since his injury and a subsequent loss of form.
It would seem that KP is back to his imperious best as he was joined in the middle by first Paul Collingwood and then Ian Bell.
Collingwood made a neat 42, taking England beyond 400 by lunch, before the Durham veteran was trapped lbw by Shane Watson at the start of the second session.
Bell then took up the supporting role, scoring an unbeaten 41, as Pietersen pushed England past the 500 mark with just less than an hour before tea.
It was the first time that England had scored successive totals of more than 500 since the 2002 series against Sri Lanka, and the first time ever against Australia.
For good measure, Pietersen and Bell added another 51 runs - and Pietersen brought up his double-ton with a single off Xavier Doherty - before the rain came to save the Aussie bowlers from a further flogging.
This is not a match which any of Australia's bowlers will remember fondly. Three of them - Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle and Doherty - have now gone for at least 100 runs.
Doherty's 0-120 off 24 overs makes for particularly painful reading while Bollinger has 1-121 off 27 and Siddle has 0-100 off 26.
Harris has been the pick of the punch with 2-84 off 29 overs while Watson has not done too badly to take 1-44 off 19.
However, this has been a woeful effort overall from Australia whose frequent misfields have betrayed their lack of confidence.
It could yet be that the Aussies are saved by rain. There was no play on the third day after tea and further unsettled weather is forecasted for the final two days.
If England are beaten by the weather and only manage a draw, it would go down as one of the most unjustified results in Ashes history.
England have dominated this Test match since its first over when Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting were dismissed. Cook, Pietersen and James Anderson have all been magnificent.
So, for time reasons, Andrew Strauss should declare on 551-4 before the start of play on day four as there is no way England are going to get bowled out by this Aussie 'attack'.
It would maximise the amount of time for Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Graeme Swann to bowl Australia out again, most probably for an innings victory.
Pietersen has noted that the Adelaide pitch has started to deteriorate and turn, which could be the cue for Swann to make his first big impression on the series.
And for psychological and historical reasons, declaring on a score of 551 would go a long way to burying the Test which England tossed away in Adelaide four years ago.
Then, England declared on 551-6 before being bowled out for 127 in their second innings on their way to losing by six wickets.
Of course, there is a no danger of a repeat of that this time.
Day two: Majestic England take complete control
(close) Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 317-2 [Cook 136*, Pietersen 85*, Trott 78]
ENGLAND showed Australia how to bat in Adelaide as the tourists took complete control on the second day of the second Test.
More big records fell to opener Alastair Cook, and he was ably supported again by Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, as England closed on 317-2, already a lead of 72.
Essex left-hander Cook overtook Wally Hammond to hold the England record for the most runs without dismissal and he is also now ahead of Nasser Hussain for minutes batted without being out.
For the record, Cook has scored 371 runs over 1022 minutes since the second innings in Brisbane.
But the morning actually did not start well for England and captain Andrew Strauss was out for one in the first over of the day as the Aussies looked for early wickets to forge a comeback.
Strauss misjudged a good length delivery from Doug Bollinger thinking the bounce off the pitch would take it over the wickets when, in fact, it clipped the top of off-stump.
England could have been two wickets down as Trott survived on two separate occasions shortly afterwards.
First, Trott set off for a single that was never there and was only saved by Xavier Doherty's failure to replicate Trott's fine throw from square leg.
Then, three overs later, Trott presented a thick outside edge to Mike Hussey at gully off Bollinger but the Western Australia man put down the straight-forward chance.
But, having ridden his luck in the early part of his innings, Trott was able to reprise the big partnership which he held with Cook at Brisbane.
There, the pair compiled an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 329, the highest partnership for any wicket in Tests at the Gabba.
This time in Adelaide, Cook and Trott put on 173, taking England well beyond lunch and breaking the record stand for any wicket by an English pair in Adelaide.
Over the two innings together, the two men had scored 502 runs over almost 10 hours of play and, all the while, Pietersen had sat in the pavilion with his pads on in case of wicket.
To the relief of the home support, their odyssey was finally over shortly before tea as Trott, on 78, attempted a misjudged loft over midwicket off Ryan Harris' bowling, only to be caught by Michael Clarke.
Pietersen emerged to pantomime villain boos before going on to play a similar innings to Trott - skittish at the start then growing in composure.
It is only fair to expect Pietersen to be a little nervous after waiting so long to make an appearance and the Aussies focused all their attention on getting the talisman out cheaply.
Skipper Ricky Ponting brought on the left-arm spin of Doherty, Pietersen's Achilles' heel, and even allowed Cook a 'free' single to bring his new partner on strike.
It was one of a myriad of slightly odd decisions made by Ponting who went through a spell, most probably in desperation, of asking his bowlers to bowl short to all sorts of unorthodox fields.
Needless to say, none of it worked and England reached tea on 198-2, a deficit of just 47.
After the interval, there was more of the same for England. Indeed, it got easier still for the tourists as the hosts tired in the field, their bowlers unable to make a further breakthrough.
England scored 119 runs in the final session and Cook brought up his 15th Test century with a cut through backward point before Pietersen recorded his 21st half-century with an on-drive.
England finished the day in an almost unassailable position at 317-2 and a huge first innings lead looms if Cook continues his vigil at the crease throughout the third day.
It looks as if Australia will have to bat the best part of two days, perhaps slightly more, just to get a draw from this match.
Of course, England pulled off that feat at Brisbane and carried through their form to Adelaide.
But these are unusually testing times for Australia and their second innings will give England's bowling attack a massive chance to prove its worth again.
Day one: England capitalise on cracking start
(close): Australia 245 [Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51] v England 1-0
JAMES ANDERSON gave England a brilliant start to the second Test as the tourists took control at Adelaide by bowling Australia out on the first day.
Anderson spearheaded the bowling attack, striking from the start and eventually taking figures of 4-51 as England dominated.
The narrative of this match comes somewhat as a surprise after Australia won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat on a wicket which has become notorious for being as flat as a road.
But, within 15 minutes of play starting, the hosts were in turmoil at 2-3 having made their worst start to a Test innings since 1950.
The first wicket fell to the fourth ball of the day but had nothing to do with the pitch as Simon Katich was run out for 0.
Katich's had hesitated on his run and it cost him dearly as he became the first opener in Ashes Tests since Wayne Phillips in 1984 to be out without having even received a ball.
But much credit must be given to Jonathan Trott for a tremendous throw which directly hit the side of stumps from 15 yards.
It was 0-2 after the next ball as Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting went for a golden duck, edging Anderson to Graeme Swann at second slip.
And the same two players combined again in the third over, as the out-of-form Michael Clarke edged to Swann off Anderson for 2.
At this point, Watson was joined in the middle by Mike Hussey who just fell short of a double-ton in Brisbane, but England were still sensing more early wickets.
Watson survived an lbw shout as England blew their first video referral on a ball that was in-line but always too high to hit the stumps.
Then Hussey had two narrow escapes. First, Anderson could not hold on to an extremely tough catch down to his left off his own bowling.
And, shortly afterwards, another edge off Anderson fell just short of Swann who was already looking for his third catch.
However, having seen off the threat of the new ball, Watson and Hussey belatedly settled down and started playing some decent shots to build a much-needed 92 partnership.
That took the Aussies to 94-3 at lunch but England knew they would remain in control of the match with another flurry of wickets at the start of the second session.
The early wicket duly arrived and Anderson claimed his third victim of the Test when Watson sliced a ball wide of off-stump straight to Kevin Pietersen at gully.
But Hussey was gently easing Australia back into the match and even under pressure man Marcus North seemed to benefit from his presence.
Hussey and North were eyeing the tea break having taken Australia past 150 but North could not survive, edging behind to wicket-keeper Matt Prior off the bowling of Steven Finn.
That left the Aussies on 159-5 at tea but North's dismissal also reunited Hussey with Brad Haddin, the pair having enjoyed a partnership worth 307 runs in Brisbane.
In a post-tea lull for England, Hussey and Haddin again looked solid, taking Australia beyond 200. However, this time, the partnership lasted a mere 51 runs as Hussey fell short of a landmark again.
After scoring 193 in the first Test, Hussey was out for 93 on this occasion, edging Swann's spin to Paul Collingwood at slip.
And Swann then put himself in with the chance of the second hat-trick of this Ashes series by trapping Ryan Harris lbw on his first ball.
Harris requested a video referral, claiming there was an inside edge, but hot-spot showed no evidence of this and he became the Aussies' third duck of the innings.
Xavier Doherty survived the hat-trick ball but those two quick wickets left Australia back in serious trouble at 207-7.
Shortly afterwards, the roof well and truly fell in on Aussie attempts to post a creditable score as Doherty was run out for six on a dreadful day between the wickets for the hosts.
Like Katich at the start of the day, Doherty appeared stuck in quicksand as Haddin called for a single, leaving Andrew Strauss with enough time to find Alastair Cook at short-leg. Cook passed the ball to Prior who whipped off the bails to leave Australia on 226-8.
Peter Siddle was next to go for three as Anderson re-entered the fray to claim his fourth wicket of the day, Cook taking the catch at midwicket.
And it was all over in the next over when Haddin skied a Stuart Broad delivery into the hands of Finn for only Broad's second wicket of the series so far.
England had bowled magnificently - all four bowlers took at least one wicket - and Anderson was the star of the show thanks to his aggressive bowling with the new ball.
Fears that neither of these teams would be able to take 20 wickets in a match have been allayed in the England camp, for now at least, and the onus has passed onto the batsmen.
Strauss, Cook and Trott all made big scores in Brisbane to ensure the first Test was a draw but Australia's sub-par score means that this is a big chance for a first meaningful away win in the Ashes since 1987.
England will be looking to their top-order players to carry their form into this match to take it out of reach for the Aussies.
After all, only a small lead may not be enough when considering the fact that it would leave plenty of a time in a game in which England would have to bat last and chase down a score.
But, at this point, the pressure is massively on Australia and their modified bowling attack, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus having been replaced by Harris and Doug Bollinger.
Ponting really needs his bowlers to deliver for him this time, and the Aussie skipper showed the strain by firing a few angry words in the direction of Strauss as England walked off on 1-0 at the close.
It always looks good for a team when they have the opposition captain rattled and England would seem to have Australia right where they want them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)