'No planes allowed' in cricket fan's Ashes quest

Tommy Lamb said he wanted to force himself off the beaten track in his Ashes odyssey

An England cricket fan is travelling from Manchester to Australia for the Ashes series... without taking a single plane.

Tommy Lamb is on Day 96 of an epic quest which he said had been full of "unreal experiences" and occasional tough moments like ending up in a Vietnamese hospital.

"I knew that if I did it after school, it would collide perfectly with the Ashes and it was just a great way to force myself off the beaten track," said the 18-year-old.

"Wild camping in a cave in Iran - that was great fun!"

Tommy said he was "spreading the word of cricket" along the way

"I've always dreamt of going to places where there's a perceived image of that place," said the teenager from Manchester.

"You can go and have your own experience of it that perhaps is different to the image portrayed generally.

"And Iran was definitely one of those countries. The most friendly people were around me."

Tommy hopes to arrive in Adelaide, South Australia, on 16 December in time for the third match of the five-Test series.

The series got under way in Perth, Western Australia, in the early hours of Friday morning, UK time.

'Back on the road'

Tommy said he had been "spreading the word of cricket" along the way.

"I try to say every time I spend the night somewhere, I'll find a local person to play cricket with me."

He said he does not always have access to translation tools so often finds himself going up to strangers in the street with a cricket bat and ball and asking "Can you throw a ball at me?"

"In the middle of the street, what could go wrong?"

Tommy said things did eventually go wrong in Vietnam but it was not because of his cricketing skills.

"I crashed my motorbike - not that I remember very much about it.

"I spent about four nights in hospital and six nights in a hotel recovering from that.

"Thankfully, over the last couple of days I've been able to get myself back on the road and I'm feeling much better, looking much better."