Warne swaps tumult of the Oval for wet Thursday in Wales

There had to be an end to the tumult unleashed after England's first Ashes victory for 18 years, the emotion at finally beating the mighty Warne and the old enemy from Down Under. The most sudden of antidotes was here at Sophia Gardens.

By the time Warne's Hampshire side arrived by the banks of the Taff to play Glamorgan in the County Championship, not one single eccentric was around to mark the moment. There was not a lunchbox, vacuum flask or tartan blanket in sight. Cricket was not the new football. It was the new ghost town.

Warne, the most recognised and best cricketer of his age, was able to get the breather he felt he deserved, managing to resist official inquiries about how he might have lost the Ashes personally when dropping Kevin Pietersen. "I'm just trying to relax, mate," he said. He had come to the right place.

As the showers belted down, Hampshire returned to their Park Plaza hotel in the middle of town and waited for a raincheck. The first came at 1.30pm. Warne walked to the square wearing a tracksuit bearing his No 23 number, his famous bleached tresses disguised under a baseball cap. Yet there was no need for disguise. There was no-one to hide from.

By then there was an audience of sorts, but the spectators were outnumbered by orange wheelie-bins. And, unlike at the Oval, these were empty.

Warne, the boy from the Melbourne suburb of Black Rock, will have noticed the glamorous surroundings, the adverts for Brains beer, which may have been part of the Andrew Flintoff celebration diet. Also the single-storey hospitality unit rather grandly named the cathedral suites. But at least the name captured the atmosphere.

At 2.30 the umpires Mike Harris and Peter Hartley were out again to check the wicket. At 3.30 they determined there would be no 4.30 inspection and play was abandoned for the day without a ball being bowled.

Warne walked back to the pavilion past a number of seagulls, who were apparently unaware that this was the most successful Test match bowler of all time. They were not alone.

It seems the cult of Warne, perhaps even cricket itself, is taking some time to move westwards and has been caught at the Offa's Dike border.

"I have heard of Shane Warne," Sally, the lonely sentry in the Sophia Gardens burger kiosk, said. "It's not you is it? I tell you what I have got. It's a plate signed by David Hemp [the local batting hero]."

Jones remains enthusiastic as fate conspires against him

It finally rained on the Ashes parade yesterday, when Kent's England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones set off on an open-top bus to visit Canterbury High School.

As the bus rolled down the drive Jones had to take evasive action in the middle of a television interview to avoid being injured by overhanging branches.

Although Jones pronounced the trip a success, fate had not finished with him. Batting in the nets he was hit on the head by a bouncer from an enthusiastic young bowler.

Then when they were ready to return to the St Lawrence Ground it was discovered that the brakes of the bus had failed and Jones had to be taken back by car.