This is one of West Bridgford’s newest cafe.  It has only been open three weeks, and already it is feeling the Ashes effect.  Owner Helen Dipper explained to Brian Fairchild how the business was benefitting.

“We have been really lucky in having two major events in Nottingham this month.  Armed Forces day was crazy.  We sold out of everything by 2pm! We are hoping for a good match, and for England to do to well, as that would be great for our trade too”.

Helen and her team are offering a £5 lunch bag offer to Ashes fans.

Over the last few months Trent Bridge has been searching far and wide in secondary schools across Nottinghamshire for the perfect picture of the Ashes. The Test Match Art Competition has been highly contested, particularly amongst pupils of East Leake Academy as all three winners have been found from the institute.

Winner, Ellie Sims, Aged 16

Ellie has just finished her GCSEs and wants to got into childcare and was a welcome surprise for her step-father when they discovered she had won as he is a huge fan of cricket and was over the moon to be able to be at the Ashes today. Ellie tells us about her artwork and what inspired her.

“Well I thought it would be quite a good idea to have both of the flags seeing as it’s both countries playing and then I had a symbol that represented cricket so I just thought about a cricket match and the stumps” she said.

“It took a couple of hours, around about 2 hours on the whole and over two days in my art lessons”

Any difficult sections?

“It was quite hard to get the Australia Flag and all the stars on them as they are quite difficult shapes but I learned quite a lot about tone and things like that and creative ideas from school” she replied.

Winner, Rebecca Harrigan, Aged 12

Rebecca is apparently forever in her room drawing according to Dad and the initial idea took only 20 minutes to put the brush onto the canvas before hours were spent putting in the color. She tells us a little about her winning picture.

“It’s cricket and it’s Ashes and the stumps were burnt so I thought I’d put flames on them to tell the story.” she said.

Any difficult sections?

“The Australian flag was tricky, I knew there was stars on but we didn’t know how many stars so I had to look that up. Of course I knew the England flag but adding details onto the lions was tricky but that was it really.”

Winner, Sophie Marsden, Aged 13

Sophie’s creation began in her the art class as she drew together the painting that would win her two tickets to the first day of the Ashes series but there was problems at times.

Any difficult sections?

“I found the writing quite hard, I had to practise it until I got it”

“The lettering being in the colours of Australia in green and yellow so I did that and for the England flag I didn’t know what other colours I could have used” she said.

Adam Roberts

It’s Tony Greet’s 60th birthday.  To celebrate, he and his wife Tricia have come to Nottingham from their home in St.Austell. They are staying at the Village Hotel in Chilwell.

Tony said: “I get to see the cricket for four days, Tricia gets to go shopping in Nottingham.”  Tony is looking forward to the match. Tricia is looking forward to visiting Nottingham castle.

Tricia added: “We both like Nottingham as a city, it has a lot to offer, even for someone like me who doesn’t follow cricket.”

After Cook fell, Jonathan Trott, the Mr. Reliable of recent times has come to the crease. Alongside Root he quickly added 18, while wicket-taking Pattinson has been replaced from the Pavilion End by Peter Siddle. England are now 50-1.

Nottingham railway station has welcomed many distinguished visitors over the years.  Today was no exception when 250 passengers arrived from Kings Cross on the Northern Belle.  Evoking the  golden age of travel, these visitors to todays Ashes match have travelled in style.  Dylan Mellor, one of the stewards on the train spoke about working on the train.

“We set off from Kings Cross at 7am this morning.  Passengers were served a three course breakfast, and will get a four course dinner on the way back this evening”.

The staff on the train won’t get a lot of time to explore Nottingham, as Laura, another steward explained “We have to get everything cleaned and ready for the return trip at 7pm.  I hope to get a couple of hours to explore Nottingham, but that will be all.”

The teams have made their way out onto the field, Alastair Cook and Joe Root emerging to raucous reception. Cook to face the first ball from James Pattinson… here we go!

… is won by Alastair Cook and England will bat first here at Trent Bridge. Also confirmation has come in that Steven Finn will be England’s third seamer, and that there will be no place for David Warner. First blood to the hosts?