The Ashes 2019: Aussies ready for some serious verbal intimidation from crowd in Hollies Stand at Edgbaston
Australia have presented the official England cheer squad with ample ammunition having re-united the ‘Cape Town Three’ at Edgbaston. As many as nine new songs are ready to be aimed at the tourists.
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The most boisterous crowd in English cricket fills a stand named after the man who famously dismissed Sir Donald Bradman for a duck in his final Test innings.
Eric Hollies denying Australia’s greatest ever batsman the unthinkable career average of 100 was delivery of the first great Ashes sledge.
But now the best will roar from the stand named in the Warwickshire legend’s honour at Edgbaston on Thursday.
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Australia has loaded up the Barmy Army, who fill so many of the 5000 seats, with ample ammunition having re-united the “Cape Town Three” in banned batsmen David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft.
It’s believed the official England cheer squad have nine new songs ready to fling at the Aussies from ball one.
And while a theme of “it is what it is” has been adopted among the Australians when it comes to verbal attacks on the trio, the volume and style which screams from the Hollies stand could ensure that Zen approach doesn’t quite cut it.
“There are lot of intimidating grounds, and Edgbaston is one of them,” said Matthew Wade, who played a season of T20 in Birmingham in 2016.
“If you get stuck on that side you can get heckled for the whole day. I try and steer clear of there.”
Former Aussie opener Chris Rogers, who played two Ashes series in England, and a dozen seasons of country cricket, remembers exactly what was said to him at Edgbaston in 2011, because you can’t not hear it.
“The cricket is so much more intimate,” he said.
“In Australia sometimes you can hear stuff, but it’s a lot of noise.
“In England, down on the boundary, you can hear the conversations. It can be quite intimidating, you feel like they are right there, and they are talking to you.
“I won’t forget them singing “there’s only Harry Potter” to me, because of my glasses, from the Hollies stand.”
During a Champions Trophy one-day clash in 2017 between Australia and England, which the home team won in a rain-affected match, it was Aaron Finch who copped it as he fielded on the boundary.
The whole stand sang “Finchy’s going home” as the Aussies were booted from the tournament.
“It’s a great crowd to play in front of, regardless whether you are on the receiving end of some good banter,” a smiling Finch said during the World Cup.
“Although they can be quite parochial at times, it is always good fun. They sing some good tunes out there.”
Warner and Smith, who are sure to be a target from the Hollies stand when every they take the field, were both booed to the wicket during Australia’s only World Cup match in Birmingham.
It was the semi-final loss to England.
Warner made just nine as the crowd roared, but Smith blocked it all out to score 85.
The Hollies Stand may have only cost $4.5 million to build, but it has provided too many priceless cricket moments to even count for cricket.
Originally published as The Ashes 2019: Aussies ready for some serious verbal intimidation from crowd in Hollies Stand at Edgbaston
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