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.
List of Ashes series
Australia has won more Ashes Tests than England, winning 134 of the 330 matches, compared to England's 106 victories. Australia also holds the edge in Ashes series won, having won on 33 occasions compared to England's 32. There have been five drawn series, and on four of these occasions, Australia has retained the Ashes due to being holders going into the series. England has retained the Ashes after a drawn series once. On only three occasions has a team won all the Tests in an Ashes series; Australia won all five matches in 1920–21, then repeated the feat in 2006–07 and in 2013–14. England's largest winning margin in an Ashes series was in 1978–79, when it won 5–1. Both England and Australia have held the Ashes for eight series in a row, England doing so between 1882–83 and 1890, while Australia achieved the feat from 1989 to 2002–03. Since 1882, a small number of Test series have been played between the two sides that have not been allocated as Ashes series; those played in 1976–77, 1979–80, 1980 and 1987–88, these series are not listed in the table below.