The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the Test series. If the test series is drawn, the team that currently holds the Ashes retains the trophy. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, "The Sporting Times", immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour "the quest to regain the Ashes".
History of English cricket from 1919 to 1939
England were outclassed by Australia in the first two series after the war but, by the middle of the 1920s, they had a team good enough to win and retain the Ashes. Don Bradman dominated the 1930 series and Douglas Jardine used the leg theory stratagem in 1932–33 to try and curb Bradman's massive run-scoring. It worked and England recovered the Ashes, but at enormous cost of cricketing prestige. With leg theory in disgrace, normal cricket resumed in 1934. Australia won back the Ashes and kept them until 1953, though England made a real fight of it in each of the 1934, 1936–37 and 1938 series.