England have retained the ashes in Australia. I never thought I’d have the chance to write that sentence. Mind you, we have retained them rather than won them outright. There’s the Sydney test tto come, and the Aussies will try their hardest to win that, so the series will probably end up two all, but under the rules a tied series means we keep the urn, which is good enough for me. In fact I reckon it’s enough to wipe clean the utter embarrassment of our last tour down under, as it is a victory inflicted on their own back yard, and by quite a convincing margin. As an English cricket fan, I am now incredibly happy – what a Christmas it is turning out to be.