The quest for Ashes tickets

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The moment had come. 9am June 1 - Ashes tickets up for sale! All preparations had been made. I signed up to join the Australian Cricket Family months ago and last week received my membership number. Last night, I called all my friends to work out where we wanted to get our seats. One wanted to sit on the boundary. Another preferred to sit further back for a better view. A third expressed concerns we might end up sitting in the middle of the Barmy Army. He also insisted we get tickets in a licensed area, which greatly increased the odds of sitting amongst a mob of inebriated English fans.

At 9am, I jumped onto the Ticketmaster website and was dismayed (although not surprised) to read the message "Our system is currently busy due to a large event on sale. Click here to try again." I went to Plan B, calling the Ticketmaster phone number. What followed was 3 hours of continual redialing and reloading of their website. Over the first hour, I agonised over the hordes of Barmy Army members buying tickets ahead of me. During the second hour, I began to panic - they predicted Day 1 would sell out in hours. What if I missed out on the most anticipated day of cricket in living memory? What if the rumours were true that 15,000 Poms had sneaked under the radar and infiltrated the Australian Cricket Family? What if the numbers were greater? The Gabba holds 40,000 - half that crowd might be English!

While I waited on the phone, Cricket Australia were boasting record sales by mid morning. Cricinfo reported on technical difficulties and delays for ticket buyers due to the unprecedented demand. As I entered the 3rd hour, I started to get fatalistic about my chances and began contemplating settling with Day 2 tickets. It'd still be good but Day 1 of the whole series? Come on!

Finally, at 12:05pm, after 185 minutes of redialing and reloading, I got through on the website. I even got the area we'd all settled on - around square leg in the Eastern Stand, ground level but a bit back from the boundary. I'll now sit back with contentment and monitor ticket sales - predictions have escalated from Day 1 sell outs to Days 1 to 3 selling out by the end of the day. I'm not so sure of that but 3 hours of button pushing has brought home to me the intense interest in whether Australia can reclaim the urn this summer.

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Posted by JC on Thu 1 Jun

8 comments

Hey congratulations on the tickets, I am v jealous!

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Posted by okbl on 2006-06-01 02:53:17

I read on the cricinfo at the end of the day that a lot of people tried all day and couldn't get through to get tickets. Or some people tried all day and when they did get through, it was sold out. So there are a lot of angry Aussie cricket fans out there. I didn't realise how lucky I was to get some tickets after just a mere 3 hours of constant redialing and reloading!

Now I'm licking my lips in anticipation. It doesn't matter who wins the toss - we either face the prospect of McGrath and Warne bowling against Trescothick, Pietersen and Flintoff... or Flintoff, Harmison and Jones bowling against Hayden, Langer and Ponting. The next 5 and a half months can't go quick enough!

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Posted by JC on 2006-06-01 03:10:03

Unfortunately I had a day from hell at work yesterday (in hindsight I should have booked the day off!) so I didn't get tickets until about 9pm. All that was left were the $20 ones in the eastern stands.

Still....*some* tickets are better than *NO* tickets. So I'm happy. :)

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Posted by Timbo on 2006-06-01 20:01:35

Which Test did you get tickets for, Tim? SCG, I presume. That seems to be the most competitive of all the venues.

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Posted by JC on 2006-06-01 21:02:26

I got tickets for the 2nd day at the MCG. Way way up the back. It took me about 40 minutes to get my tickets online. Totally excited to be going. Cant wait!!!!

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Posted by Lani on 2006-07-25 04:18:48

is there a website to bye ashes tickets

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Posted by bazza on 2007-01-09 20:50:53

Hey Bazza, bit late for that, isn't it? It's all done and dusted unless you're talking 2009.

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Posted by JC on 2007-01-09 22:57:36

Anyone know when 2009 is on sale.

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Posted by Tone on 2007-01-16 23:02:42

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