In article ,
hungerdunger writes:
On 09/01/11 19:44, John Hall wrote:
Many of the coldest winters in the UK over the last 100 or more years
have coincided with an England cricket tour of Australia:

1894-5
1928-9
1946-7
1962-3
1978-9
(2010-1)

An Ashes tour doesn't guarantee a hard winter, as many coincided with
mild or average winters. But ignoring the war winters of 1916-7 and
1939-40, the five completed winters listed above are the coldest five in
the record from 1894-5 onwards.

Is there any correlation between cold winters and England performing
well in Australia? I heard someone on the radio a few days ago
suggesting that they usually did well when there was an El Nina event
as this tended to provide them with weather and therefore pitches which
were more suitable for their style.


England were hammered in 1946-7, and in 1962-3 the series was drawn and
Australia retained the Ashes. England won the other three series, though
in 1978-9 Australia were very weak, having lost a lot of players to
Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.
--
John Hall
"I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly,
will hardly mind anything else."
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84)