91Èȱ¬

In lots of ways 1985 was my favourite year. In the charts we had the "Whole of the Moon", "The Power of Love" by and "Walking on Sunshine" by .

At the cinema, it was the summer when reigned with "Back to the Future" and "Teen Wolf".

And what a year it was in sport!

Seventeen-year-old won the title, ttriumphed in the Open golf at before helping Europe to claim their first in 28 years at the Belfry and enthralled nearly 19m viewers in the early hours of the morning to win the World Snooker Championship.

But fantastic as all those events were, the Ashes was my main focus that summer.

Now you may wonder why I prefer the 1985 Ashes vintage to the more celebrated series of four years before and for me, it's mainly due to one man, .

Now don't get me wrong, like the rest of the nation I was enthralled by the efforts of Ian Botham in 1981 but I preferred the elegance of Gower to the muscle of Beefy.

Whereas Botham struck the ball to the boundary, Gower caressed it and that summer he was unstoppable. Another thing I liked about Gower was his vulnerability.

Sometimes you weren't quite sure whether one of those glorious cover drives was going to end up going for four or landing in the hands of second slip.

I remember at the start of that summer Gower could hardly score a run - but then he worked his way to a hundred in a one-day international against Australia and never looked back.

England won the first Test at with 175 the highlight - although oddly my main memory of that game is the crowd running on to the field as top edged the winning runs and failing to take the catch among the spectators.

Then the Aussies came roaring back, winning at thanks to a masterly batting display from , although I remember he was very fortunate to survive when failed to hold on to a catch at short leg.

The series stayed level after draws at and . Gower's 166 in the highlight , before it really caught light in an amazing game at .

Australia seemed to be on top after finishing the second day on 335-8 before the game changed on the Saturday morning. Firstly, Gower ran out Geoff Lawson before took his sixth wicket to finish off Australia's first innings.

But then the day belonged to a wonderful 300-plus partnership between Gower and Robinson. I was away in Wales on scout camp that weekend and I remember listening to while sitting in a which I had helped to assemble in the forest out of twigs and fern leaves.

It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and I didn't think life could get much better hearing about my hero Gower taking the Australian bowling attack apart.

Mike Gatting also scored a century to add to the Aussies misery before Botham struck his first ball for six as England pushed towards the declaration.

After Sunday's rest day I returned from scout camp and I remember making sure I was set up early in the living room with TV and radio on ready for the fourth day's play which ended in the most dramatic of fashions.

Ellison struck four times including crucially bowling Border to leave Australia 37-5 at the close of play - but I am pretty sure that 91Èȱ¬ Television did not actually show the last half hour of that day because bad weather extended the game for so long they had to go to another programme and I recall taking my radio outside to so that I could listen to the action while continuing my battle against my older brother's fast bowling.

So, surely England were going to win and take the lead in the series - just five wickets to take on the final day.

I lived in at the time, only a few miles from Edgbaston, and I recall the massive dissapointment I felt when I drew back the curtains on the Tuesday morning to see torrential rain.

Sometimes I didn't mind the odd bad weather interuption during a Test match because it meant some entertaining banter on TMS and highlights of great matches on 91Èȱ¬ TV, but on that day the last thing we needed was heavy rain.

I just couldn't see how they would get any play in that day, but somehow the rain stopped and the teams managed to get on.

For a while England's bowlers were frustrated before a freak dismissal of wicketkeeper caught by Gower off Allan Lamb's boot.

insisted on the TV that he could not tell if the ball had hit the ground or not - it seemed perfectly clear to me as I'm sure it did to most England fans.

The other Australian wickets fell to guarantee England arrived at , as they did in 2005, needing to avoid defeat to regain the Ashes.

But while in 2005 the result was still unsure until late afternoon on the fifth day, in 1985 a thrilling 300-run partnership between Gower and secured the series for England on the first day.

I remember it was another gloriously sunny day and I was away on a family holiday listening to the commentary on the beach.

Before play started I recall hearing satirical version of Paul Hardcastle's hit record "19" on the radio, "N . N..N Nineteen not out".

His version of the song was based on Gower's batting average in the series against the West Indies the previous summer and included some brilliant impressions of the likes of Benaud, and .

Fortunately Gower's average in the summer of 1985 was much more healthy and five days later he was being presented with the Ashes urn on the balcolny at the Oval.

Although the win was based on the performances of the likes of Gower, Gatting, Botham and Embury - England also used the likes of , Les Taylor and even our own in the series and it was Taylor who held the catch to secure the Ashes.

Two years later did the same at the as an unfancied England retained the Ashes down under with Gatting as captain.

At that time England winning the Ashes seemed almost routine - yet of course we had to wait 18 years before .

(YOU CAN HEAR HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1985 AND 1986/87 ASHES AS PART OF "THE ASHES YEARS", TUESDAY 16 JUNE AT 2100 BST)