Ashes ticket buyers wait and wait

The first day of cricket's biggest and most unusual family went as smoothly as many more traditional gatherings, with lengthy delays, grumpy arguments and disappointment about missing out on presents. As Cricket Australia's locals-only policy for Ashes tickets was opened to the Australian Cricket Family, members of the 128,500 unit were furiously mouse-clicking in the search of the promised seats in stints that lasted the equivalent of three sessions of play.

The current slogan for the summer is "It's definitely on", but today it should have been changed to "It's definitely crashed" as computers all over the country - and in England for those with Australian-resident friends - refused to budge on the ticket-selling websites. Seats went on sale at 9am, by which time the server on Cricket Australia's page had turned off due to overload. The online outlets Ticketmaster, who was selling for the Gabba, the WACA and the MCG, and New South Wales's Ticketek quickly joined in as pages loaded at a pace that would have made even Chris Tavare yawn. Telephones lines were engaged as workers worried that they would end the day empty-handed.

"Our system is currently busy due to a large event on sale," the Ticketmaster site read. "We apologise for the inconvenience." Servers spent more time going down than big ships in blockbuster movies, and buyers who were told to rush to avoid missing out were being ordered to be patient.

After five group emails and months of signing up members, Cricket Australia and the ticket sellers knew exactly how many people were prepared to purchase and they expected the "unprecedented" surge. Unprecedented has been the favourite word of the publicity campaign - it was the headline of a Cricket Australia email an hour after the release - and can be used again. The delay in getting tickets to a Test was unprecedented.

"We understand that due to the volume of interest systems are sometimes slower than expected," James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said generously. "I would urge all members of the Australian Cricket Family to continue to be patient through this process as the day continues."

Andrew Symonds had surgery this week on a wrist problem that flares during heavy periods of batting. He will be in demand for tips on prevention and cures after the mass development of RSI for users who spent the day trying to refresh the pages - or attempting to get into the main ticket sites. Australian supporters must hope the five-Test campaign is better planned and runs more smoothly than this family affair.