You may recall that the last Test match at the Oval came in rather subdued circumstances, the final game of last summer’s South Africa series paused for a day following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and then resumed with a poignant and surprisingly stirring first rendition of God Save The King.
It would be overly dramatic to compare then and now, but as the Ashes circus rolled into its final stop in south London yesterday, the mood felt a little flat, this million-miles-per-hour series brought to something of a slow march by the weekend’s washout and the mourning of the decider that never was.
