Meet neighbour Down Under
Four cricket fans flying the flag for the Black Country at the Ashes have proved it's a small world - by travelling thousands of miles to bump into a host of fellow sports followers from home.
Four cricket fans flying the flag for the Black Country at the Ashes have proved it's a small world - by travelling thousands of miles to bump into a host of fellow sports followers from home.
One even bumped into a neighbour who lives just 50 yards away in an incredible coincidence during their stay in Brisbane.
Taxi driver Brian Hunt is celebrating his 60th birthday on a trip to watch the cricket with his old schoolfriend Dave Meese, an IT consultant, Dave's salesman son Richard and brother Jonathan Meese, an export manager at Conex, Tipton.
And the Albion shirt Jonathan has been wearing to matches has proved a magnet for Baggies fans, says Brian.
It has also flushed out Wolves fan Lee Atkinson, aged 32, of Norton, Stourbridge, a season ticket holder who lives just up the road from Richard.
Brian said:"There are lots of Baggies fans here who come up to Jon because he is wearing an Albion T-shirt. But we have found one lone Wolf who it turns out lives just 50 yards from Richard.
"We met one Albion fan living in Australia who was walking around in a T-shirt saying Astle is King. I couldn't believe he was 40 years behind the times and had some fun ribbing him about that. I asked him if he had written the logo on the bridge at Netherton but couldn't get much sense out of him because he was at the bar.
"On Sunday someone asked Jon the Albion score at Stoke and he found out they were from Stourbridge. Their names were Jennifer and Mike Tompkins and aey had some friends John and Jackie Whitehouse who live at Sedgley. It turns out that Jackie works with Jon's wife Sue at The Bramford School, Woodsetton. We could hardly believe the conicidence.
Jon has also managed to track down his old mate from Penn Golf Club Len Cookson who is here with his wife to visit their daughter and son-in-law in Perth.
'It just goes to show what a small world it is."
If you're going to Australia for any of the games in the Ashes series, let us know and we can feature you in our big match coverage. Contact us on sports desk on 01902 319461 or email us: sports@expressandstar.co.uk We're waiting to hear from you!
