BARMY ARMY ASHES DIARY: PART IV - A scare in Melbourne

England fan Chris Millard takes The Cricketer inside the Ashes

England's Barmy Army are among the most famous travelling fan groups in world sport and this year they have flocked to Australia in their droves for the Ashes series.

Chris Millard is one of the collective's longest-serving members and he's sharing his experiences of his time Down Under with The Cricketer throughout the tour.

Here's part four of Chris's diary...

I arrived in Melbourne the day after my birthday. My girlfriend had flown out to join me and we were walking down the street towards Flinders Street Station, to cross the road towards the South Bank where our hotel was.

We got into our hotel room and I had quite a few messages and phone calls. We flicked the TV on and we saw the travesty that had happened, and we realised we had walked on that crossing around 10 minutes before.

It was pretty shocking, and quite daunting, thinking that we were so lucky to just be here and be okay - particularly after what had happened back home during the year.

Thankfully everyone did check in and the death toll was a lot lower than first feared, but it still took everyone a few days to get their heads around what had happened. There was a lot of panic in the city but everyone was okay and we managed to turn our minds forward to the Test.

But before that, there was a Bashes game to get through. It was an awesome day at Middle Park Cricket club. Michael Vaughan’s young lad Archie was playing in the first game and Michael came down to watch, getting involved with all the activities we had going on.

There was lots of beer drinking, lots of song singing and then the Fanatics game.

We had Billy Root, Joe’s brother, as our captain. We needed a bit of help, being 2-1 down, so we had to call a few ringers in. The Glamorgan wicketkeeper Tom Cullen was also playing for us, as we needed a little bit of firepower.

The boys brought it home to level the series at 2-2 and we reckon there were around 800 people there watching towards the end, which was pretty special.

Vaughny stuck around, all the Root family were there other than Joe. Even young Alfred Root came down to watch.

Then it was time to head to our pre-Test party on Federation Square in the middle of Melbourne. To say we took it over was an understatement. I think the people in the next province knew who Joe Root and Alastair Cook were by the end.

It was great to welcome back Billy the Trumpet after he flew home for the birth of his baby. We had Dave the Sax and Pete the Trombone but Billy was back and firing on all cylinders with classics and new belters.

Christmas Day was spent in the best function room in the whole of Melbourne at the Crown Casino, with 600 people rocking from start to finish.

World famous magician Nick Nickolas got a standing ovation at the Christmas dinner and the Barmy Army Christmas carols with Billy the Trumpet rounded the day off really, really well until we got kicked out at four o’clock and finished the day in the bars of Melbourne.

Then it was time for the cricket.

We were up at 8am to do media duties, as is usual on the first day of a Test match.

The pressure was off and we felt that it would be just our luck to roll them over having already lost the Ashes.

Day one at the MCG is always the same - when you walk in it’s hard not to be astonished by how amazing the venue is.

Sadly, we lost the toss and that was a bit of a downer. If we couldn’t win the cricket we thought we were at least destined for a coin toss whitewash.

We looked quite good at the start, particularly Jimmy. Everyone has been questioning if he still has the legs but I thought he bowled really well early doors, even though Warner and Bancroft batted through until lunch.

During the break, there were some suggesting they might not bother coming back but the introduction of Tom Curran gave us all a boost of energy. We really like the look of him and we’re big fans of his aggression, which is something we all feel has been missing.

And what better wicket than to get David Warner on 99. Can you imagine the celebrations from the Barmy Army.

If you can imagine your football club scoring in the 95th minute to beat your local rivals, those were the emotions. Then to have it overturned for a front foot no ball… that summed up the whole Ashes series for us. As soon as things got happy, they quickly got crushed.

Despite that, the next few sessions brought England dominance - which was a nice change.

The atmosphere was helped by the fantastic hospitality we had from Melbourne, particularly the police and our favourite Sergeant Mike who joined in with a few songs and helped spirits stay pretty high.

Then it was Cooky’s turn to get those spirits even higher.

The pressure that must have been on him would have been so strong. We’ve backed him throughout the tour and for him to do what he did just made any doubter realise “of course he’s still the man, of course he’s the man everyone wants to open… we’re deluded to say otherwise”.

Every Barmy Army member who has been on the tour throughout was ecstatic for him. A lot of us know him personally now because he’s been around for so long and we were all a bit down when he was struggling for runs.

However, there he was, walking off 244 not out having carried his bat and broken world records. What a man. That’s why he’ll probably be our best opener ever come the end of his career.

There should be some credit to Stuart Broad, whose batting has depreciated more than a new car over the past three years. Without his knock, there’s no way Cooky would have been able to do what he did.

Day four started in funny fashion, with Jimmy getting out first ball, which summed up the series a bit.

Still, it was time to cheer the boys on to a famous win.

It’s almost expected that we get Bancroft and Khawaja in the first session and a half, which is what we did, but the problem comes with Warner and Smith. And, on that day, the elements contributed too.

That’s when we knew we weren’t getting a result.

Despite that, the Army were loud on the final day. There were 5,000 of us and no one else. Our section was full - you couldn’t get a seat in the five blocks we were in - but the remaining 85,000 seats were all free.

It might not have gone our way on the last day but you can’t doubt their effort and the appreciation was there from the fans. The sound was incredible, and Aussie fans were coming to sit with us because they were loving what was going on.

Smith went to 100 again, and we gave him another standing ovation. This has been the series of his life. The match might have turned into a non-entity but it was still as enjoyable as ever, and it was good that the team came over at the end for pictures and autographs.

Now it’s the sell-out at the SCG. Let’s see how we get on in Sydney.