People have become so used to Australia beating Engalnd at cricket that they forget how much suffering Australia supporters had to endure in the decade 1977-1987. Ashes victories to England in 1977, 1978-9, 1981, 1985, 1986-7 - can you imagine how bad that was? Yes, I know Australia beat England in 1979-80, but the Ashes weren't at stake in that series. They also did in 1982-3; this was, however, an exception against what seemed to me like an ominous trend.
You can imagine how cheerful I was, therefore, at Old Trafford in 1989, with Australia 2-0 up after three Tests, and now, in the fourth (with two still to come), seemingly cruising towards an Ashes-clinching victory. England had begun their second innings needing 187 to avoid an innings defeat and when the sixth wicket fell they had only 59 on the board. And then - would you believe it? - Jack Russell and John Emburey decided to put up a fight. The two of them could not be shifted. They put on 142, Russell making an unbeaten century. Rain also intervened.
Allan Border was worried. I was worried. Sitting in the stands at Old Trafford with my friend David Howell (the labour historian, not any of the other David Howells), I remember saying at one point something characteristically restrained and moderate like 'If Australia don't win this, I'll kill myself.' He looked at me and said, 'Don't be daft, it's only a game.' Phlegmatic, you see - which in those years I found it hard to be about Anglo-Australian cricket. Anyway, the partnership was finally broken and the England innings concluded. Australia had a very gettable target, which they duly got.
Only one act in the drama still had to be played out - Australia had to score 78 to win the match and the Ashes. Geoff Marsh lost his wicket for 31, but Mark Taylor and David Boon finished the job. - Philip Derriman, Ashes from AshesIf the loss of them really didn't mean a lot to England then, time has worked a certain change of perspective. But, in truth, the loss of the Ashes always means a lot to whichever team suffers it.Australia required only 78, and they had 70 minutes, plus 20 overs, to make them. They spun it out politely, and could probably have scored twice as many if they had been asked to. - Alan Ross in Patrick Eagar, Tour of Tours
Marsh was out 16 runs away from the target, but shortly before 5.40 pm Boon smashed a ball from Nick Cook to the square leg boundary to give Australia what, in the end, was a comfortable victory by nine wickets. - John Huxley, Border's Heroes
Maybe Border should have come in, but it was indicative of how much of a team effort it has been that he stuck to routine. There was just time for Taylor to score his 500th run of the series before Boon, after teasing out the final moments, clinched things. - Mike Selvey, The Ashes Surrendered
Today we won the Ashes. I didn't sleep too well last night... It was a pity AB couldn't hit the winning runs. We suggested he go out at three instead of Boonie, but he wouldn't have it. He said he was happy to sit on the balcony and watch the victory from there. I thought I would shed a few tears when the moment came and I didn't let myself down, but I wasn't the only one with moist eyes on that balcony. - Geoff Lawson, Diary of the Ashes
They lost Marsh for 31 with the score at 62, but Taylor and Boon cruised to the target at 5.41 pm. So ended the battle for the Ashes. They belonged to Australia, regained on foreign soil for the first time in 55 years. And so began the celebrations to end all celebrations... - Rod Nicholson, Border's Heroes
Appropriately, the evening sun shone on Allan Border as the captain, surrounded by his colleagues, sat on the balcony enjoying the final, glorious moments. Twice he has lost Ashes series in this country, but the huge margin of Australia's ascendancy - three wins in four - will have wiped away those black images. - The Daily Telegraph (Peter Deeley), Battle for the Ashes '89
Of course Boonie just had to have his bit of fun at our expense! There we were on 77, just one short of the momentous victory, but Boon was playing Nick Cook's slow, flighty spin as if the ball was a hand grenade. I can tell you there were plenty of fidgeting feet, sweaty palms and wringing of hands up on the balcony. We all thought, "For Christ's sake, Boonie, hit it!" So when he and 'Tails' Taylor came back in through the dressing room door and the cheering and yahooing died down, someone chipped Boonie for taking so long about it. With a sort of half-smile curling around that sergeant-major moustache of his, he said, "I only wanted to make sure I got 'red-inks'", which is cricket-speak for a batter who likes to see not-out against his name in the scorebook. - Allan Border, Ashes Glory
Australia... could rejoice in the recovery of the Ashes. That so clearly meant more to Australia than the loss of them appeared to mean to England. - Wisden 1990
On the plane journey from Brisbane to Adelaide on which I sat next to Ian Healy (and the story of which is told here), when I mentioned the 1989 Ashes series, he said, 'Oh, the series we stole.' I was puzzled. 'Stole?! You thrashed England 4-0.' He explained that Australia had arrived in England with no one giving them a chance; at lunch-time on the final day of the first Test at Headingley, he said, the Australians were really happy that they hadn't lost the game. They were looking forward to drawing it. But they won and never looked back from there. It was the beginning of a glorious period of Ashes history, which has been relished in a certain household in south Manchester.
[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]