Down Under

Like many cricket fans, I want to go to Australia this winter and watch the Ashes. Back in January, I had it all planned. I'd phoned the tour operators, arranged a schedule and looked at flights. I'd even taken a gap year.

But what with credit crunches and double dips, financially I wasn't able to book anything.

I still want to go to Australia. I have even less money now then I did then (hence the shop).

So I'm trying to win my way in.

I've entered numerous competitions on numerous websites. The Telegraph, the Times. Even the Daily Mail. Obviously, we've all seen the Barmy Army competition (as it's operators have spent the last month spamming blogs), and of course I've entered that. You name it, I'm in it to win it.

My trump card is an app. Basically, every day two new questions are asked. One at 12am, one at 12pm. Each question is worth varying points based on it's difficulty. Once someone gets to 100 points, they win a trip. If a question is answered wrongly, the score gets reset to zero.

I don't know how many people use this app. I shouldn't have thought it's exceptionally popular; maybe a few hundred. Many of those won't be good at cricket trivia, or will forget to do it regularly. This is where my stash of useless cricket knowledge and OCD obsessiveness comes in. (Note - I'm not really OCD but just really want to go to the Ashes). I reckon I'm in with a big chance of winning it.

I don't know how big a chance I have. I don't know if someone's already won. But I don't want to further reduce my chances by namechecking the app (and encouraging potential rivals).

While this is partly a blog about Ashes competitions, it's also a plea. If you have tickets you want to donate, or pay me to go and report, I'd be happy to accept. You'd be my favourite blog reader ever. I'd even change my picture of Andrew Strauss on the header to a picture of you. I'm only saying.

However, I am writing this blog on the way to Lord's for the England v Pakistan test. So its not all bad.