VIEW FROM DOWN UNDER
THE MEL FARRELL COLUMN

Ten years ago I covered my first Test match as a reporter. It was an Ashes summer in England and, while the men were slugging it out on day three in Chester-le-Street, I set off from the country inn where I was staying towards the Wormsley estate in the Chiltern Hills.
The sunflowers were out as I ambled along country lanes on a walk I had calculated to be around 25 minutes. I arrived at the gate to find a bemused steward, astonished that I had arrived on foot. He explained the cricket ground was still a couple of miles away on the sprawling Ge...