Ashes 2019: England v Australia second Test, day one – live!

I have been off round the ground again to curate some Top Quality Online Content™ for you. One moment.

Of course you can still email me or tweet me if you like. Let me know your rain stories. What’s the most fun you’ve had during a rain delay? What was the least? What was the smartest or stupidest time that you played the rain card the night before?

One thing I’ve learned a lot about this summer is umbrella etiquette. In Australia, it has to be raining for about three days straight before more than 0.1% of people remember to bring an umbrella out of the house. Here, the first drop of precipitation and bang: up go a forest of brollies. Then you have to work out footpath spacing and walking trails as everyone has a wider profile, and for the taller people among us there are a lot of metal spines at eyeball height. And yet it seems to work. People naturally take slightly wider berths and the umbrellas zip seamlessly between one another like a water ballet. It’s a wonder to watch.

Ok, I’ve taken a tour on foot around Lord’s to bring you the latest. It is… wet. Not Noah wet, but maybe a half-Noah. There were more people leaving the ground than coming in, which frankly seems like good common sense. The ones remaining are some hardy Australians who have nothing better to do because none of our Prime Ministers is being deposed right this minute. The covers are on tight and the runoff hoses are pouring torrents out near the boundary line. Let’s settle in for more of the same.