When Webber met Ponting (in middle England)
It's not easy getting globetrotting Australian sport stars Mark Webber and Ricky Ponting in the same place - but The Mole emerged to find them both basking in the Worcestershire sunshine on Monday.
Australia cricket captain Ponting was guiding his squad through a mid-morning training session ahead of this week's Ashes warm-up match against the England Lions at New Road.
And, with 11 days to go before the Formula 1 circus arrives at Germany's Nurburgring, Red Bull driver Webber took the chance to catch up with his old mates Ponting and Brad Haddin.
Webber is pretty handy with a tennis racquet and on a bike and also played cricket as a youngster, growing up in Queanbeyan with Aussie wicket-keeper Haddin.
But actually joining in the slip fielding practice or nets session was not on the agenda for the racing driver - when Ponting threw a pair of pads at him, he threw them right back with a laugh.
"Australian cricketers are heroes in our country," said Webber, who first gained access to the inner sanctum of the Baggy Green dressing room because of his friendship with former captain Steve Waugh.
"I've been to three Ashes Series' in England and this should be another ferocious tour. Hopefully Australia can have a good result against England."
As for the Australians, they were happy to chat to Webber about, well, anything other than cricket really.
Ponting and his vice-captain Michael Clarke wanted to hear more about the British Grand Prix, where Webber finished second behind Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull one-two.
They also wanted the inside track on why Ferrari and McLaren were doing so badly in 2009.
"We keep a close eye on Australians in other sports, so to see Mark do so well at Silverstone was great," said Ponting, who outed Mitchell Johnson, Clarke and Nathan Bracken as the petrol-heads in his team.
"I told Mitchell I was going for a drive with Mark Webber this afternoon and he just said 'What?!'"
But with just nine days until England and Australia commence battle in the first Test in Cardiff, the banter eventually drifted back to the A-word.
Ponting revealed that in recent team meetings, two members of his squad have taken turns to give a presentation on their Ashes memories.
"It made me feel a bit old as some of the younger guys were talking about matches I played in," joked Ponting.
But the talks will have played a part in bonding and buoying team spirits ahead of the historic fight for the urn.
"The Ashes means a lot in terms of what we as Australians stand for as a nation," explained Webber as a cricket fan. "It's a big expectation."
"Yeah there's a big expectation," agreed Ponting. "But no-one in the world has more pride than this group of Australian players.
"And we're not taking our opportunities for granted."
That's a sentiment Webber - who lies fourth in the race for the F1 drivers' crown - probably shared with his old mate Ponting as the Australian sporting giants retreated into the pavilion for lunch before re-focusing on serious sporting matters ahead.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~20~RS~)
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Mark really has been getting around this week. I saw him at Wimbledon on the BBC too. I hope this doesn't get in the way of F1 preparation because he really could do with working on performing better in qualifying, especially getting ahead of Vettel.
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Mark Webber is rather like Jarno Trulli, in the fact that they are both excellent, excellent drivers (who are both completely capable of winning a world championship, given a good car).
However, what seems to happen to both Trulli and Webber, is that foul luck often swings their way more often than not.
I do think, that if the foul luck swings elsewhere (Brawn have had a notable absence of it) then Webber can maintain pace with his team-mate, and mount a title challenge.
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Surprising to see cricket and F1 together. Anyways it will be a hardly contested Ashes series 2009. Hopefully England would like to emerge the winners. I would also like them to win.
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I agree with Lord_Lancashire's comment. Mark Webber (and Trulli) is as capable as winning a championship as anyone, given the car and the circumstances but he seems to be more than a bit unlucky when all things look good. He had several of these mishaps in the past, beginning with the 2003 Brazilian GP when he had a car capable of a podium finish only to end up crashing badly when the rain fell suddenly. He had other similar situations in 2004 (Malaysia, starting second with the Jag); Monaco and Nurburging in 2005; Monaco again in 2006; Japan and Canada in 2007; the Silverstone race in 2008 and the same at Singapore, when he had second place in his pocket.....In sum, many many opportunities lost, and most of them due to reliability problems or other driver's errors. He made mistakes of his own, of course, though most of the times where in response to trying to go faster than the car could deliver. Through all these years Webber has been extremely quick in qualifying, beating all his team-mates, something that this year has been not possible so far. Perhaps he's taking a different approach, concentrating more on race-days instead of going flat-out on saturdays. Vettel is the most difficult partner he has had and it is pushing Webber to his limits, something that can be seen at every Grand Prix. However, he will have to beat the german in qualis as well if he wants to not only mount a championship challenge of his own but even to keep getting equal treatment at Red Bull. His young team-mate is regarded as "the wonder-kid" and everyone is so focused on his performances that no-one is paying real attention to what Mark is doing. And that, I think, can work in his benefit insofar as he delivers the speed for which he's known for. I'm sure he will do his best to beat Vettel in Germany and I'm positive he will win this year. I just hope it is soon enough.....
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Why didn't you let me know F1 mole - I had a day off living in Worcester on Monday. It would have been great to meet Mark. Who knows he could have been signed up for WCCC. He can't do any worse than they are playing in the championship at the moment. Its when you read this blog that you realise that "honorary Brit" status only goes so far.
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