This feature originally appeared in our Cycling Weekly's Review of the Year on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.
It’s 5:57pm in south London, 12 September 2005, and the shadows are lengthening at the Oval. Steve Harmison bowls the final ball of the men’s Ashes; Justin Langer misjudges it, the ball glances off him, runs away to the boundary for four leg byes, and the umpires call stumps. England fans launch into wild celebration, having won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years – and at that exact same moment, live Test cricket disappears from UK free-to-air television.
