Ah, a Parramatta summer. There’s nothing quite like it. A sense of being subsumed by all the heat Sydney has to offer. Insufferably humid days and nights. The inevitable mozzies, roaches and huntsman spiders from leaving the windows open. That first dip in the pool, river or ocean. The innocence of being barefoot and scraping the grass.
With the regularity of an alarm clock, there’s the annual debate over Australia Day – which regardless of one’s stance is an occasion of significance for any migrant. Even today, I still remember beaming as I received my citizenship back in the 1990s at Castle Hill Showground.
Increasingly too, at this time of year, I find myself glancing with puzzlement at the Triple J ‘Hottest 100’. Realising that even as a music aficionado, I barely recognise any song on the list. And after sampling a couple, mourning the fact they don’t make rollicking tunes like they once did.
For movie buffs, it’s also a great time to splurge on films nominated at the Oscars (and at $25 a ticket – splurge is the only way to describe it). From ‘The Holdovers’ to ‘Poor Things’ and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, there is much I look forward to watching in coming weeks.
Above all, you know it’s a top summer when you’re unsure whether to prioritise the cricket or tennis, as both are so good. There’s something in the circadian rhythms of Australians that means whenever a sporting contest is on in the living room, the holidays never truly end.
This Test season didn’t look promising on paper. Pakistan and West Indies hardly loomed as threatening opposition on local pitches against an Australian side resplendent after recent success.
But after Pakistan collapsed in inimitable fashion for 89 in the fourth innings at Perth, the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne was a cracker – with greasy fingers in the field the main difference between the two sides.
After a nonsensical national telethon about the whereabouts of David Warner’s baggy green cap – even I was checking down the back of my couch at one point – the opener got the send-off he wanted in front of his home SCG crowd.
Thereafter, discussion raged in national pubs and backyards as to whether the selectors made the correct call to elevate Steve Smith up the batting. Everyone is suddenly an expert on whether Smudge’s technique is shot. After a few cheap dismissals, the jury remains out, but a near match-winning innings in the just completed second Test against the West Indies suggests he will be given further opportunities.
Still, this season, it was generally Australia’s tireless bowlers that saved the batsmen.
After a pulsating finish last weekend, the true pleasure of the summer has been seeing the West Indies bounce back.
Not even the most parochial local fan could begrudge Shamar Joseph’s exuberant dash across the Gabba after taking the final wicket to defeat Australia by eight runs and level the series 1-1.
The West Indies tour of Australia during the 1988-89 summer remains etched in my brain.
As a young boy, it was the series that first hooked me on Test Cricket. Faced with the might of Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and the fearsome pace of Marshall, Ambrose and Walsh – Australia got hammered.
But the experience was also a baptism of fire for a young team that would go on to win the Ashes in England, setting up decades of success.
In Joseph’s raw pace and swashbuckling batting, you get the sense a new star has been born – in the mould of the Calypso legends of yesteryear.
Down at Melbourne Park, an exciting changing of the guard is also underway with new faces like Coco Gauff and Qinwen Zheng getting to the semi-finals of the women’s draw and 22-year-old Italian Janink Sinner triumphing in the men’s event. Novak Djokovic has been a great champion, but it becomes harder to root for someone chasing his zillionth title.
Overall, it was another Australian Open of seesawing tiebreaks and matches that went the distance. Alex de Minaur looks ready to push the big names all year.
But now, the TV is off. School is back. At work, clients and bosses start filtering back and issuing requests.
I wish we could bottle the feeling of summer for longer. Getting older, it’s a time to be prized more and more.
This year was one of the best.
Alan is a journalist and communications specialist. He writes a weekly column for Parra News.