TWENTY thousand disappointed fans were turned away from Old Trafford yesterday, according to Lancashire County Cricket Club, in extraordinary scenes of Ashes fever.

The hardy and wise came with their sleeping bags at two o’clock in the morning. By eight o’clock the crowds were ten deep snaking from the tram station to the ground. They waited and still more came, even after the gates were closed, even when tickets were only available from the many touts.

“It’s incredible, we’ve turned 10,000 away from the ground this morning and the police tell us they stopped about the same coming to us from Manchester,” Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive, said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in 23 years of cricket administration. Maybe there hasn’t been anything like it since the days of Compton and Bradman.”

Arthur Ridley, a Lancashire member, who has “been to every game, every day, second team an’ all” for 20 years, said everyone had been “sardining in on the metro for the first four days, but today was ridiculous. Everyone wanted to see it. It was ‘can we do it?’ ” The centre of Manchester was gridlocked yesterday morning and by 9.30am Greater Manchester Police said they had issued a statement to the media telling people not to travel to the ground because it was sold out.

Old Trafford has staged many famous Tests between the old rivals, including one of Botham’s Ashes Tests in 1981. But the 115,000 tickets sold over the five days is second only to the 120,417 sold for the Ashes Test in 1961, when Richie Benaud, then Australia’s captain, bowled his team to a surprise victory with 20 minutes left in the match.