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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Tanya Aldred

Dear cycling: a letter and a warning from cricket’s golden free-to-air summer in 2005

'Beefy' and 'Lamby' were characters from the TV adverts for British Beef & Lamb based on the legendary 1980s England cricketers Ian Botham and Allan Lamb
Fans dressed as Beefy and Lamby wave as they enjoy day three of the fifth Ashes Test match at The Oval in 2005. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Dear cycling, hello from 2005. It’s dusty back here, piles of unloved pagers, a cityscape of VHS towers and chest freezers packed with Turkey Twizzlers.

It’s been a strange sort of summer – switchbacking in mood. On 6 July, London won the rights to hold the 2012 Olympics, a last-minute heist from under the Parisian nose; the next day terrorists murdered 52 people on the London transport network. The country was in a state of high alert, but the Australian cricket team, who had landed in early June, stayed to play in the Ashes. I’ll always be grateful for that decision – it turned out to be not only our last summer, but also our greatest.

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