History of Test cricket from 1877 to 1883
By 1883, the tradition of England-Australia tours was well established, that year having concluded the first Ashes series. When England lost at home for the first time in 1882, "The Sporting Times" lamented the death of cricket in the mother country and declared that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". England captain Ivo Bligh promised that on the tour to Australia in 1882–83 he would regain "the ashes" and the term began to be established. During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The urn is commonly, but erroneously, believed to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift.
Rest of the World cricket team in England in 1970
England went to Australia the following winter and, in a controversial series, won The Ashes for the first time since Richie Benaud's team had beaten them in the 1958–59 series. England under Ray Illingworth were actually one of the most successful Test teams of all time. They created a world record in official Test cricket of 27 consecutive Tests without defeat from 1968 to 1971; the record was equaled by Clive Lloyd's West Indies team between 1981 and 1984. At the time, however, the Rest of the World Tests were recognised as official and England's record run has only been confirmed retrospectively. England took sixteen players on tour and fourteen of these had featured against the Rest of the World. The other two were reserve wicket-keeper Bob Taylor and Yorkshire batsman John Hampshire. Alan Ward had to return home because of injury problems and was replaced by the young fast bowler Bob Willis, who made his Test debut on the tour.