The prospect of watching five days of cricket rarely sends the British public into a frenzy.
This summer the nation has gone cricket-crazy. One of the greatest contests the game has seen is unfolding and hope is building that England might beat world champions Australia at last.
British sport in August is usually dominated by the start of the soccer season. Now the Ashes cricket series is giving people something positive to talk about after the London bombings.
"There are people all over the country who would have told you, only a few weeks ago, that cricket was the most boring game ever devised," the Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote on Tuesday.
"The drama being played out between England and Australia has made cricket buffs of tens of thousands of people who could hardly have told a googly from a gherkin before the series began."
The five-match series is three games old and tied at 1-1 after the Australian tourists, regarded as the best cricketers in the world, salvaged a draw from almost certain defeat at the death of the fifth day of the third Test on Monday.
It is unusual for excitement to be maintained throughout a game that takes almost a week to end without a winner, but the Australians leapt up and down with relief. Just a few weeks ago, they had boasted they would thrash England 5-0 in the series.
TRIANGULAR SANDWICHES
Cricket used to be played by English gents taking as many summery days as they deemed necessary, while ladies idled in the sun and waited to serve tea and triangular cucumber sandwiches.
Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once remarked: "The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity."
One game between England and South Africa in 1939 lasted from March 3-14 and only ended because England had to catch a boat home.
This year's Ashes series has turned that image of the game on its head, filling grounds with chanting, drink-fuelled throngs obsessed with every ball bowled and every run scored.
More than 20,000 people were turned away from the final day of the last game in the northern city of Manchester because the ground was already brimming with fans hoping for an England win.
The two sides do have a bit of a history. England and Australia have been playing each other since the nineteenth century. After an Australian victory in London in 1882, the Ashes were born:
"In affectionate remembrance of English cricket, which died at the Oval, 29th August 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, R.I.P.," London journalist Reginald Brooks wrote in a mock obituary. "N.B. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."
The sides have since battled with leather ball and willow bat for a small terracotta urn believed by some to hold a burnt bail, or the "ashes".
It has been nearly 20 years since England held the trophy.
Now English cricket has found a crop of world-class players like Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff, fast bowler Steve Harmison and skipper Michael Vaughan.
They are matching and even outplaying the Australian masters, forcing cricket on to British front pages and pushing Manchester United and Chelsea off the back pages.
"With its great sportsmanship and gripping finishes, cricket has deservedly regained its place in the sun," The Times newspaper said.
