England’s Barmy Army give their assessment on the Australian cricket players at the Ashes
THE Barmy Army — a well loved group of straight talking Poms with an unshakeable loyalty to their cause. But what do they think of the Aussies? Lauren Wood stepped into ‘enemy territory’ to find out.
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THE BARMY Army is in full voice at the MCG and hopeful that Alastair Cook and England can lead the tourists to victory after three-straight losses.
Cook had just passed 150 runs and the Army has returned to the ‘G after its usual pilgrimage to The Precinct Hotel in Richmond for lunch.
And Barmy Army founder David “The General” Peacock said it’s not a matter of wanting to win a match — it’s needing to.
“We need to win one. We’ve got 10,000 fans here desperate for success and they’ve played exceptionally well here to fight back,” he said.
“For an England victory anywhere in Australia is amazing. We have a brilliant time when we lose, so when we win, it just goes off the scale.”
READ THEIR PLAYER ‘RATINGS’ BELOW
Peacock was a founding member of the group that has since become synonymous with English cricket, having travelled to Australia as a backpacker in the 1994/95 series which was won by Australia 3-1.
This tour hasn’t gone to plan with the Ashes returned to Australia after wins in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, but Peacock said the job of the Army isn’t made any more difficult when things aren’t going the team’s way.
“Not really. Because everyone has come here on holiday and they love cricket,” he said.
“It’s the trip of a lifetime for a lot of them — a lot are here for the first time. When England play well, the noise and the singing gets louder and louder and we’ll drink even more.
“We’ve won twice here in Melbourne and it’s an amazing ground to win at. If we can win here, it would be absolutely superb.”
READ THEIR PLAYER ‘RATINGS’ BELOW
THE BARMIES ON OUR BOYS
CAMERON BANCROFT
“Only an English County player.”
DAVID WARNER
“Not liked by players or fans anywhere in the world.”
USMAN KHAWAJA
“Useless. A walking wicket.”
STEVE SMITH
“A very, very good player. Too good.”
SHAUN MARSH
“Dad loves the Barmy Army. Geoff was drinking with us in London.”
Venturing into enemy territory...should be fun. #Ashes @TheBarmyArmy @heraldsunsport pic.twitter.com/EHIyAS4uW2
— Lauren Wood (@LaurenHeraldSun) December 27, 2017
MITCH MARSH
“Played better than we expected.”
TIM PAINE
“Gobby. The third-best keeper in Australia.”
PAT CUMMINS
“Had too much Christmas curry. Sorry we don’t have a song for him.”
JACKSON BIRD
“Slow. A County second-team player.”
JOSH HAZLEWOOD
“A good lad. He likes the Barmy Army.”
NATHAN LYON
“Barmy Army pantomime villain, but we think he likes the Army.”
*There were more, but they were simply too rude to publish*
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