Back at The Oval
It's really exciting being back at the Oval. As soon as I walked through the Alec Stewart Gate this morning my mind wandered back to last year's dramatic finale of the Ashes here.
As last year I am here looking after Five Live's Cricket Coverage - today that involves helping the Victoria Derbyshire programme with some live pieces amongst the crowd, keeping an eye on Pat Murphy and Graham Gooch as they deliver regular updates and this evening, overseeing Five Live Sport's live outside broadcast.
It should be fun tonight - we have Geoff Boycott and Jonathan Agnew presenting a Cricket phone-in, then Mark Saggers will be here with Phil Tufnell as we start to look ahead to England's trip to Australia to try to defend the Ashes.
As I write unfortunately rain has stopped play - this is really frustrating, more so for the supporters of course - we are lucky enough to be undercover in the splendid new media centre. Thinking back to the Oval of last summer the crowd cheered whenever the rain fell, every interruption increasing England's chances of securing the famous urn.
One of the best memories of last year's incredible Test series was the interplay between the Aussies and England supporters. The England fans holding up umbrellas trying to con the umpires it was raining, the Aussies ripping off their shirts and then in the gloomiest conditions of the match, the Australian players coming onto the field all wearing sunglasses!
Last year Five Live broadcast all their programmes from the Oval from six in the morning until ten at night. This was undoubtedly the most exciting event I have been involved with. It's really good to know that although cricket may not quite have the same profile this summer there is still lots of interest from Five Live - fuelled by Monty mania of course!
