When was the Ashes series first played?
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.
The Ashes
The First Test at Lord's was convincingly won by Australia, but in the remaining four matches the teams were evenly matched and England fought back to win the Second Test by 2 runs, the smallest winning margin in Ashes history, and the second-smallest in all Tests. The rain-affected Third Test ended with the last two Australian batsmen holding out for a draw; and England won the Fourth Test by three wickets after forcing Australia to follow-on for the first time in 191 Tests being a period of 17 years. A draw in the final Test gave England victory in an Ashes series for the first time in 18 years and their first Ashes victory at home since 1985.
1989 Ashes series
Australia won the series 4-0 to win the Ashes for the first time since 1968, and the first time in England since 1975. Australia would go on to retain the Ashes until 2005, winning four series at home and a further three in England during this period.
Australian cricket team in England and Scotland in 2009
The series of five Test matches between England and Australia was for The Ashes and, for the first time, a Test match was held in the capital of Wales, Cardiff. Australia was the holder of The Ashes trophy, having won the 2006-07 series 5–0. England won the last series to be held in England in 2005, and subsequently won the 2009 Ashes 2–1. The Twenty20 International series was drawn 0–0 as bad weather meant that neither match produced a result.
History of English cricket from 1919 to 1939
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) remained the controlling body in English cricket throughout the inter-war period and was responsible for the selection and management of the England cricket team. Australia were England's main rivals and The Ashes were contested in ten series between 1921 and 1938, five in England and five in Australia, most famously in the "Bodyline" series of 1932–33. England played three home series against South Africa and four in South Africa including their last overseas tour before the Second World War. In 1919, the International Cricket Conference had only its three original full members (Australia, England and South Africa). The membership and, hence, the number of countries able to play Test cricket doubled on 31 May 1926 with the promotions of India, New Zealand and the West Indies to full member status. England played each of these teams for the first time in the next few seasons. To 1939, there were three England v India series, two in England and one in India; four England v New Zealand series, two in each country; and five England v West Indies series, three of them in England.
Rickmansworth Cricket Club
In 1882 Rickmansworth again hosted an All England team of professional players preparing to face the touring Australians 9 days later. Rickmansworth (fielding 18 players against the England Eleven) were defeated by 128 runs, but the England team went on to lose the most famous of matches, the original ‘Ashes’, at the Oval just over a week later. The same Ashes which are so keenly contested to this day.
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.
History of Australia (1851–1900)
Over the period, the foundations of the popularity of many Australian sports took root. Intercolonial cricket in Australia started in 1851 and Sheffield Shield inter-state cricket continues to this day. The 1876-77 season was notable for a match between a combined XI from New South Wales and Victoria and the touring Englishmen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was later recognised as the first Test Match. A famous victory on the 1882 tour of England resulted in the placement of a satirical obituary in an English newspaper saying that English cricket had "died", and the "body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The English media then dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to "regain the ashes". The tradition continues with The Ashes series remaining one of the most anticipated events on the international cricketing calendar.
1970–71 Ashes series
The 1970–71 Ashes series consisted of seven cricket Test matches, each of five days with six hours play each day and eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1970–71 and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. Ray Illingworth's England team beat Bill Lawry's Australians 2–0 and regained the Ashes, the only full Test series in Australia in which the home team failed to win a Test. "The Momentous Series of 1970–71" was pivotal in cricket history and "essentially ushered in the modern period of Test cricket". It was the first Test series to have more than five Tests and the first One Day International in cricket history was played in Melbourne; like the first test match in history it was won by Australia.
1989 Ashes series
The Australians arrived in Nottingham for the Trent Bridge test giddy after regaining the Ashes, and being the first Australian side to win a series in England since the 1975 Ashes series. The weather and pitch looked suited to batting, and so on winning the toss, Allan Border had no hesitation in choosing to do so. What happened next went down as one of the most memorable moments in Ashes folklore.
England cricket team
Australia won the 1934 Ashes series 2–1 and kept the urn for the following 19 years. Many of the wickets of the time were friendly to batsmen resulting in a large proportion of matches ending in high scoring draws and many batting records being set.
Mal Reilly
Reily was part of the victorious Great Britain touring team that defeated Australia in the Ashes series during the 1970 Great Britain Lions tour. As of 2015 this remains the last time Great Britain or England has won The Ashes. Australia regained The Ashes during the 1973 Kangaroo tour, and have not lost them since.
1948 Ashes series
The 1948 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 10 June 1948, England and Australia played five Tests. Australia had not lost a Test since the Second World War and were strong favourites. Their captain Don Bradman had publicly expressed his ambition of going through the tour without defeat, and Australia won 10 of their 12 lead-up matches, eight by an innings. The England team, however, had several notable players themselves, including Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Alec Bedser. Nevertheless, the final result was a 4–0 series win for Australia, with the Third Test being drawn. They thus retained The Ashes. The Australians remained undefeated for their entire tour of England, earning them the sobriquet of "The Invincibles".
1948 Ashes series
Since the Second World War, Australia had played 11 Tests and had been unbeaten. In early 1946, they defeated New Zealand in a one-off Test by an innings. The following season, in 1946–47, they won the five-Test series against England 3–0, and followed this with a 4–0 series win over India in the following season. Australia were regarded as an extremely strong team in the lead-up to the tour of England, and Bradman publicly expressed his desire to achieve the unprecedented feat of going through the five-month tour without defeat. Prior to the First Test, Australia had played 12 first-class matches, winning ten and drawing two. Eight of the victories were by an innings, and another was by eight wickets. One of the drawn matches, against Lancashire was rain-affected with the first day washed out entirely.
England cricket team
The start of the 20th century saw mixed results for England as they lost four of the eight Ashes series between 1900 and 1914. During this period England lost their first series against South Africa in the 1905–06 season 4–1 as their batting faltered.
Herbert Sutcliffe's cricket career (1919–27)
The first four Tests of the 1926 England v Australia series were scheduled for just three days and were all curtailed by poor weather. The final Test at The Oval was timeless to ensure a finish. It has become one of the most famous matches in cricket history, not because England regained The Ashes for the first time since 1912 but for the manner it which it was achieved as Hobbs and Sutcliffe produced their most famous partnership in treacherous batting conditions. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22 and, at close of play on the second day (a Monday), Hobbs and Sutcliffe had taken the England second innings score to 49–0, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight and next day, as the sun shone, the pitch soon developed into a "sticky wicket" on which it was generally assumed that England would be bowled out cheaply and so lose both the match and the series. But, in spite of the very difficult batting conditions, Hobbs and Sutcliffe put up a great defence of their wickets and gradually increased their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and, in the end, England won the game comfortably, by 289 runs, and regained The Ashes.
The Ashes
The oldest, and the one to enjoy enduring fame, was the one presented to Bligh, later Lord Darnley, during the 1882–83 tour. The precise nature of the origin of this urn is matter of dispute. Based on a statement by Darnley in 1894, it was believed that a group of Victorian ladies, including Darnley's later wife Florence Morphy, made the presentation after the victory in the Third Test in 1883. More recent researchers, in particular Ronald Willis and Joy Munns have studied the tour in detail and concluded that the presentation was made after a private cricket match played over Christmas 1882 when the English team were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property "Rupertswood", in Sunbury, Victoria. This was before the matches had started. The prime evidence for this theory was provided by a descendant of Clarke.
History of cricket
In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and the success of this tour ensured a popular demand for similar ventures in future. No Tests were played in 1878 but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882, the Australian victory in a tense finish gave rise to The Ashes.
Points system (cricket)
A multi-format points system was first introduced for the 2013 Women's Ashes series in England; the series consisted of one Test match, three One Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals. Six points were awarded for winning the Test match, with two points each if drawn, and two points for winning a limited overs match, and one point each if the match was drawn. Talking about the points system, then England captain Charlotte Edwards said " It preserves Test cricket, which is the most important thing, but equally we get to play the more popular formats which are one day and Twenty20 which the media and the public has a huge demand for." England won the series 12–4 after the test match was drawn, Australia won one ODI and England won two ODIs and all three T20Is. The system was used again in the 2013–14 women's Ashes in Australia, with England winning 10–8, despite winning fewer matches; England won the test match, one ODI and one T20I, while Australia won two ODIs and two T20Is.
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.
Australia national cricket team
A highlight of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England at The Oval. In this match, Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target. After this match "The Sporting Times", a major newspaper in London at the time, printed a mock obituary in which the death of English cricket was proclaimed and the announcement made that "the body was cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which Australia and England play a series of Test matches to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport.
From Ashes to New
Timeline
The Ashes
Australia reached a cricketing peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with a general decline in England's fortunes. After re-establishing its credibility in 1989, Australia underlined its superiority with victories in the 1990–91, 1993, 1994–95, 1997, 1998–99, 2001 and 2002–03 series, all by convincing margins.
History of rugby league
Also in 1908, the Australian rugby union team returned from a tour of the British Isles, for which the team had received three shillings a day, for out-of-pocket expenses. Thirteen of the players immediately joined rugby league teams. By the northern winter of 1908–09, an Australian touring party was heading for Great Britain, and the test series was dubbed "The Ashes" by the press, in imitation of The Ashes cricket matches, contested by Australia and England.
History of English cricket from 1919 to 1939
In the 21 seasons between the wars, England took part in 120 Test matches as part of fifteen home and thirteen away series. Several other first-class tours were organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and private individuals like Sir Julien Cahn and Lionel Tennyson. Having won The Ashes in 1926 and successfully defended them in 1928–29, England thereafter had to face the formidable challenge of Don Bradman, whose heavy scoring was the key difference between England and Australia through the 1930s. Under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine in 1932–33, England controversially deployed so-called "leg theory", better known as "bodyline", in order to regain the Ashes but nearly caused an international incident by doing so.
2009 Ashes series
The 2009 Ashes series began with Australia leading by 31 series to 27, with five drawn series. Australia had won nine of the last 10 Ashes series, including winning the most recent series 5–0 in 2006–07, but the 2005 series, the last to be held in England, was won 2–1 by the home side.
Reginald Shirley Brooks
It was while writing for "The Sporting Times" in 1882 that Brooks published a spoof obituary of English cricket, following the England side's defeat in a Test match against Australia. His mild satire resulted in subsequent cricket series between Australia and England becoming known as "The Ashes".
History of the England cricket team from 1945
The 1968 Ashes series was once again a 1 -1 draw, with much attention paid to Australian mystery spinner Johnny Gleeson. Lawry's Australians won the first test at Old Trafford but were rolled for 78 at Lord's where Milburn scored a rollicking 83. Wintry conditions – the ground was white with hail on the first day – allowed the Australians to escape. Cowdrey scored a hundred when he became the first test player to play 100 matches. England won the Oval test after volunteers from the crowd helped clear the puddles after a storm, and Australia, 85 for 5 when the rain came at lunch, were bowled out by Derek Underwood who took 7 for 50.
Australian cricket team in England in 1953
England won the final Test to take the series 1-0 after the first four Tests were all drawn. England therefore recovered the Ashes for the first time since losing them in 1934.
The Ashes
The tide finally turned in 1953 when England won the final Test at The Oval to take the series 1–0, having narrowly avoided defeat in the preceding Test at Headingley. This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock, wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans and all-rounder Trevor Bailey.
1990–91 Ashes series
The England cricket team toured Australia in the 1990–91 season to play a five-match Test series against Australia for The Ashes. The Australians were the holders, having reclaimed the Ashes in England during the 1989 Ashes series, however the 1986-87 Ashes series, which was the previous series in Australia had been won by England. The English tourists were confident their home series loss in 1989 had been a blemish and that they were more than capable of reclaiming the Ashes 'down under'. The tourists were seemingly well prepared. During their home summer they had 1-0 victories in 3-test series against both India and New Zealand, and had played well in their warm-up matches.
The Women's Ashes
Heralded in 1931, the first women's Test series between England and Australia—the first women's Test series anywhere—was played in 1934–35. At that time, according to the English captain, Betty Archdale, women played only "for love of the game" and did not wish to be associated with the male concepts of Tests and Ashes. The contest was not officially designated "the Women's Ashes" until the 1998 series, when an autographed bat was burned before the first Test at Lord's, some ashes then being placed inside a hollowed-out wooden cricket ball replica to manufacture a trophy. In 2013, a new Women's Ashes trophy was produced.
2010–11 Ashes series
Prior to the start of the 2010–11 Ashes series, Australia had won 31 series to England's 29. The remaining five were draws. England won the most recent series in 2009 by two Tests to one, but Australia had whitewashed the last one held on home soil (the 2006–07 series), winning 5–0. The last time England won the Ashes on Australian soil was in 1986–87.
Australian cricket team in England in 1981
The tour by the Australian cricket team in England in 1981 included the 51st Ashes series of Test matches between Australia and England. Despite having been 1–0 down after two Tests, England won the next three Tests to finish 3–1 victors (with two draws), thus retaining the Ashes. The series is popularly known as Botham's Ashes, owing to the remarkable performances of Ian Botham with both bat and ball.
Great Britain national rugby league team
The first Kangaroos arrived in England on 27 September 1908, they toured Britain, losing more games than they won. They played their first ever test against the Northern Union in December in Loftus Road, London; a last minute penalty against the Kangaroos for an obstruction play handed England a goal and a 22-all draw in front of a crowd of 2,000. The second test in Newcastle in January 1909 attracted a crowd of 22,000, and the Northern Union won 15–5. The third test was played at Villa Park, Birmingham, the Northern Union winning again 6–5 before a crowd of 9,000. The Australians suggested that the series should be named "the Ashes" after the cricket series of the same name.
1946–47 Ashes series
The 1946–47 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each of six days with five hours play each day and eight ball overs. Unlike pre-war Tests in Australia, matches were not timeless and played to a finish. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1946–47 and England played its matches outside the Tests in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The England team was led by the veteran Wally Hammond and his vice-captain Norman Yardley with the strong batting line up of Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Bill Edrich, Denis Compton and Joe Hardstaff, but a weak bowling attack that relied on pre-war bowlers like the 37-year-old Bill Voce of Bodyline fame and the mercurial leg-spinner Doug Wright. The two successes of the tour were the newly capped Alec Bedser, who would carry the England bowling attack until 1955, and Godfrey Evans who would be England's first choice wicketkeeper until 1959. England had drawn the Victory Tests 2–2 in 1945 and were thought to be equal in strength, but Hammond lost 3–0 to Don Bradman's Australian team which had only two other pre-war players – Lindsay Hassett and Sid Barnes, who had played 5 Tests between them – and was packed with fresh talent in the shape of Arthur Morris, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Colin McCool, Ernie Toshack and Don Tallon. There were several controversial umpiring decisions which assumed greater significance as they favoured Australia and in particular Don Bradman.
The Ashes
The 2010–11 series was played in Australia. The First Test at Brisbane ended in a draw, but England won the Second Test, at Adelaide, by an innings and 71 runs. Australia came back with a victory at Perth in the Third Test. In the Fourth Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, England batting second scored 513 to defeat Australia (98 and 258) by an innings and 157 runs. This gave England an unbeatable 2–1 lead in the series and so it retained the Ashes. England went on to win the series 3–1, beating Australia by an innings and 83 runs at Sydney in the Fifth Test. Australia, captained by Michael Clarke, batted first on a cloudy day after winning the toss and were bowled out for 280. England made 644, their highest innings total since 1938. England then bowled Australia out again for 281. England's series victory was its first on Australian soil for 24 years. The 2010–11 Ashes series was the only one in which a team had won three Tests by innings margins and it was the first time England had scored 500 or more four times in a single series.
Third Test, 1932–33 Ashes series
The Third Test of the 1932–33 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide from 13 to 19 January 1933, with a rest day on 15 January. England won the match by 338 runs to take a series lead of 2 Tests to 1 with 2 Tests to play.
The Ashes
The 1938 series was a high-scoring affair with two high-scoring draws, resulting in a 1–1 result, Australia retaining the Ashes. After the first two matches ended in stalemate and the Third Test at Old Trafford never started due to rain. Australia then scraped home by five wickets inside three days in a low-scoring match at Headingley to retain the urn. In the timeless Fifth Test at The Oval, the highlight was Len Hutton's then world-record score of 364 as England made 903-7 declared. Bradman and Jack Fingleton injured themselves during Hutton's marathon effort, and with only nine men, Australia fell to defeat by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest in Test history.
The Ashes
An Ashes series is traditionally of five Tests, hosted in turn by England and Australia at least once every two years. There have been 70 Ashes series: Australia have won 33, England 32 and five series have been drawn.
The Ashes
The 1972 series finished 2–2, with England under Illingworth retaining the Ashes.
The Ashes
In England and Wales, the grounds used are: Old Trafford in Manchester (1884), The Oval in Kennington, South London (1884); Lord's in St John's Wood, North London (1884); Trent Bridge at West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire (1899), Headingley in Leeds (1899); Edgbaston in Birmingham (1902); Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales (2009); and the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, County Durham (2013). One Test was also held at Bramall Lane in Sheffield in 1902. Traditionally the final Test of the series is played at the Oval. Sophia Gardens and the Riverside were excluded as Test grounds between the years of 2020 and 2024 and therefore will not host an Ashes Test until at least 2027. Trent Bridge is also not due to host an Ashes Test in 2019 or 2023.
The Ashes
After the war, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. It won the first eight matches in succession including a 5–0 whitewash in 1920–1921 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team.
The Women's Ashes
The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the outcomes of Test matches. Since the Australian tour of England in 2013, the competition is decided on a points system, taking account of One Day Internationals and Twenty20 International matches as well as Tests. Four (previously six) points are awarded for a Test victory (two points to each side in the event of a draw), and two points for a victory in a limited-overs game. , the trophy is held by Australia.
Test cricket
Two rival English tours of Australia were proposed in the early months of 1877, with James Lillywhite campaigning for a professional tour and Fred Grace for an amateur one. Grace's tour fell through and it was Lillywhite's team that toured New Zealand and Australia in 1876–77. Two matches against a combined Australian XI were later classified as the first official Test matches. The first match was won by Australia, by 45 runs, and the second by England. After reciprocal tours established a pattern of international cricket, The Ashes was established as an ongoing competition during the Australian tour of England in 1882. Surprisingly beaten, a mock obituary of English cricket was published in the "Sporting Times" the following day: the phrase "The body shall be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia" prompted the subsequent creation of the Ashes urn. The series of 1884–85 was the first to be held over five matches: Shaw, writing in 1901, considered the side to be "the best ever to have left England".
English cricket team in Australia in 1978–79
The England cricket team toured Australia in the 1978–79 season to play a six-match Test series against Australia for The Ashes. England won the series 5-1, thereby retaining The Ashes.
1950–51 Ashes series
The 1950–51 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each of six days with five hours play each day and eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1950–51 and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The England team under the captaincy of the big-hearted all-rounder Freddie Brown was regarded as the weakest sent to Australia and "without Bedser and Hutton, England would have been little better than a club side". Few gave them a chance of regaining the Ashes and they lost the series 4–1 to Lindsay Hassett's Australian team, which had far greater reserves of talent. In the Fifth and final Test England beat Australia for the first time since 1938 and ended their unbeaten run of 14 Tests against England, 26 Tests against all teams and 96 games in all cricket since the Second World War. After this victory England would defeat Australia in 1953, 1954–55 and 1956.
2017–18 Ashes series
The 2017–18 Ashes series (named Magellan Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of Test cricket matches contested between England and Australia for The Ashes. The series was played at five venues across Australia between 23 November 2017 and 8 January 2018. England were the defending holders of the Ashes going into the series, having won in 2015. Australia won the series 4–0, regaining The Ashes after taking an unassailable lead with an innings victory in the third Test. Following revelations that Australian players cheated by ball tampering in their series against South Africa in March 2018, questions were raised regarding fair play in the Ashes series.
The Ashes
England and Australia were evenly matched until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Five more series took place between 1905 and 1912. In 1905 England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won the series 2–0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907–08 and 1909. Then England won in 1911–12 by four matches to one. Jack Hobbs establishing himself as England's first-choice opening batsman with three centuries, while Frank Foster (32 wickets at 21.62) and Sydney Barnes (34 wickets at 22.88) formed a formidable bowling partnership.
The Ashes
The first Test match between England and Australia was played in Melbourne, Australia, in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their tour of England that year the Australians played just one Test, at the Oval in London. It was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket. Australia made a mere 63 runs in its first innings, and England, led by A. N. Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In its second innings, Australia, boosted by a spectacular 55 runs off 60 deliveries from Hugh Massie, managed 122, which left England only 85 runs to win. The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Fred Spofforth, spurred on by the gamesmanship of his opponents, in particular W. G. Grace, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just eight runs short of victory.
2009 Ashes series
The first Test was held at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, the first Test match ever to be held at the ground, and resulted in England saving a draw with one wicket to spare, and Ricky Ponting surpassing 11,000 Test runs, becoming Australia's leading Test run scorer as the series progressed. The second Test at Lord's was preceded by the announcement that Andrew Flintoff would be retiring from Test cricket at the end of the series. The England all-rounder then took his first Lord's five-for to seal a 115-run victory, England's first against Australia at the ground in 75 years. Rain prevented play for large amounts of the Third Test at Edgbaston, including the entire third day, making the draw an inevitable result. Australia pegged the score back to 1–1 with an innings victory at Headingley after bowling out England for 102, their lowest Ashes total since they were bowled out for 77 at Lord's in 1997. This left the Fifth Test at The Oval to decide the series.
2010–11 Ashes series
The 2010–11 Ashes series (known as the Vodafone Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was the 66th series of Test cricket matches played to contest The Ashes. The series was played in Australia as part of the England cricket team's tour of the country during the 2010–11 season. Five Tests were played from 25 November 2010 to 7 January 2011. England won the series 3–1 and retained the Ashes, having won the previous series in 2009 by two Tests to one. As of 2018, it is the last time that the visiting side has won the Ashes.
List of Ashes series
Although the first Test series played between England and Australia was in the 1876–77 season, the Ashes originated from the solitary Test which the two nations contested in 1882. England lost the match, played at The Oval, and a mock obituary was posted in "The Sporting Times", declaring the death of English cricket. It stated that: "The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." The Honourable Ivo Bligh adopted the term and, as captain of the English party that travelled to Australia the following winter, promised to bring the "Ashes" home.
Godfrey Evans
After four draws, the fifth and final Test at The Oval was the series decider. Australia, after winning the toss for the fifth time in the series, chose to bat first and scored 275, Evans taking four catches. England gained a first innings lead of 31; Evans innings of 28 included two hooked fours from a Ray Lindwall over. England took control of the match on the third day as the Australian batsmen struggled against spinners Tony Lock and Jim Laker and were dismissed for 162. England completed an eight-wicket victory the next day to win the Ashes, which Australia had held since 1934. Evans finished the series with 117 runs at 23.40 and 16 dismissals.
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.
The Ashes (rugby league)
The Cup was first presented in 1928 to "The Lions", after they defeated Australia 2–1 in the series. Following the 1933–34 series, in which England retained the Cup for the third time since first being presented with it, the Cup disappeared in the United Kingdom and was not found until October 1945. The trophy had been on display at a function in Ilkley, Yorkshire and afterwards was returned to the manager of the Griffin Hotel, Leeds - where the English Rugby League management met - but this was not made clear to the English authorities and instead in laid overlooked in a box for 12 years. During the period it was missing, Great Britain had won each series and the Cup's disappearance was not widely known. The Australian team first won the Cup in 1950.
The Ashes (rugby league)
On 27 September 1908, the first touring Australian rugby league side arrived in England, and played their first ever Test against the England side in December in London. Two further Tests were played. The Australians suggested that the series should be called "The Ashes" and the name stuck.
English cricket team in Australia in 1920–21
The tour was the first to have Test status after the First World War. It followed tours by the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team which played a number first-class matches in England, South Africa and Australia immediately after the war. The last Ashes series had been the 1912 Triangular Tournament held in England that year.
2013 Ashes series
The 2013 Ashes series was a series of Test cricket matches contested between England and Australia for the Ashes. It formed part of the 2013 Australian tour of England, which also included the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, five One Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals.
1965–66 Ashes series
The 1965–66 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each of five days with six hours play and eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1965–66 and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. M.J.K. Smith led the England team with the intent on
regaining the Ashes lost in the 1958–59 Ashes series, but the series was drawn 1-1 and they were retained by Australia. The Australian team was captained by Bobby Simpson in three Tests, and his vice-captain Brian Booth in two Tests.
The Ashes
Australia regained the Ashes on its home turf in the 2006–07 series with a convincing 5–0 victory, only the second time an Ashes series has been won by that margin. Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer retired from Test cricket after that series, while Damien Martyn retired during the series.
The Ashes
It was in the 1960s that the bipolar dominance of England and Australia in world cricket was seriously challenged for the first time. West Indies defeated England twice in the mid-1960s and South Africa, in two series before they were banned for apartheid, completely outplayed Australia 3–1 and 4–0. Australia had lost 2–1 during a tour of the West Indies in 1964–65, the first time it had lost a series to any team other than England.
The Ashes (rugby league)
The Ashes had not been contested since 2003 when, in 2009 with the prospect of not contesting them until after the 2013 World Cup, Britain's Rugby Football League (RFL) challenged the Australian Rugby League (ARL) to play the round-robin stage match of the Four Nations tournament with the Ashes at stake. The one-off game would be a departure from the usual three-match series, additionally the contest would be between England, rather than Great Britain, and Australia. The ARL initially agreed to the proposal but later, facing hostility from former Ashes players and fans who thought the proposals devalued the Ashes, the two governing bodies decided not to proceed.
The Ashes
Australia resoundingly won the 1897–98 series by 4–1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott. His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901–02 and the classic 1902 series, which became one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket.
English women's cricket team in Australia in 1984–85
The English women's cricket team toured Australia between 7 December 1984 and 3 February 1985 to contest The Women's Ashes for the ninth time. Australia won the five match Test series 2–1 to claim the Ashes for the first time since 1963.
Clem Hill
The next Ashes series was held in 1897–98 with Stoddart again assembling an English team to tour Australia. The team included players such as K.S. Ranjitsinhji and George Hirst. The touring team's first match on arrival was against South Australia and Hill batted well, scoring exactly 200. The First Test was played in Sydney and a minor controversy ensued when officials abandoned the first day's play due to earlier heavy rain without consulting the two captains. The delay did not seem to affect the English who batted first and scored 551, including centuries by Ranjitsinhji and Archie MacLaren. The Australians were forced to follow-on after making 237. Batting again, Hill scored 96 but England managed to win the match by nine wickets. The Second Test was played in Melbourne and Australia fought back, winning by an innings and 55 runs with Hill scoring 58. Another innings victory in the Third Test in Adelaide saw Australia leading the series two Tests to one.
The teams returned to Melbourne for the Fourth Test. England started the match brilliantly, reducing Australia to 6/58 on a pitch that assisted the bowlers. Hill, aged just 20, was watching at the non-striker's end as the wickets fell. Hugh Trumble came to join him and together they began to rescue the Australian innings. When Hill reached his maiden Test century, he had scored all but 42 of his side's runs. Hill played balls pitched outside leg stump particularly well and drove beautifully throughout the innings. At the tea interval, Hill, feeling refreshed, mentioned to Trumble that he thought he would "have a go at them now". The experienced Trumble cautioned Hill, replying "You young devil, you have to stop there. Go along as you have been doing." Hill and Trumble made 165 runs batting together, still a record for a seventh wicket partnership in Ashes Tests. Hill was 182 not out at the end of the day's play, the highest first-day innings against England in Australia, and leaving the ground was greeted by a barrage of photographers. After a rest day, Hill added only six more runs before being dismissed at last by Hearne. His innings remains the highest in Ashes Tests by a player under 21. Batting for 294 minutes he gave only the one chance at dismissal. The journalist and former Test player Tom Horan wrote "Hill's innings will be talked of when the smallest boy who saw it will be white with the snows of time." Australia won the Test by 8 wickets to recover the Ashes. That summer, Hill scored 1,196 runs in 19 innings including five centuries, the first Australian to score 1,000 runs in a home season.
The Ashes
As in 1930, the 1934 series was decided in the final Test at The Oval. Australia, batting first, posted a massive 701 in the first innings. Bradman (244) and Ponsford (266) were in record-breaking form with a partnership of 451 for the second wicket. England eventually faced a massive 707-run target for victory and failed, Australia winning the series 2–1. This made Woodfull the only captain to regain the Ashes and he retired upon his return to Australia.
Australian cricket team in England in 1882
The 1882 Australia v England series was at the time considered to be part of another first-class cricket tour of England, by a combined team from the Australian colonies, but the match arranged between the Australians and an England side was later accepted to be a Test match. Although it was not known at the time, the one-off match played at The Oval in south London would become the birth of The Ashes.
English women's cricket team in Australia in 1957–58
The English women's cricket team toured Australia between 11 January 1958 and 24 March 1958 to contest The Women's Ashes for the fifth time. The four match Test series was drawn 0–0 which resulted in Australia retaining the Ashes.
Clem Hill
For the first time under the auspices of the Marylebone Cricket Club, an English team travelled to Australia for the 1903–04 season to contest the Ashes. Contrary to expectations before the tour, the English won the series and the Ashes three Tests to two. Hill trailed Trumper and Noble in the series averages, making 276 runs at 27.60 without ever getting to 100 in an innings. In the First Test, Hill was at the centre of what "Wisden" described as a "very regrettable and indeed disgraceful [crowd] demonstration". Batting with Trumper, Hill had run well past the stumps at the bowler's end for a fourth run. The English return gave the Australian pair an opportunity for an overthrow. Hill had to run the entire length of the pitch. Albert Relf at mid-on gathered and threw to the wicket-keeper, Dick Lilley who removed the bails and appealed for the run out. Umpire Bob Crockett gave Hill out. Hill could not believe the decision as the ball had passed behind him when he slid his bat to make his ground. The crowd were also convinced that Hill was not out and began to hoot, chanting "Crock!, Crock!, Crock!" Bottles were thrown onto the surrounding cycle track and the English captain Plum Warner threatened to take his team from the ground. At the end of the day, Crockett required a police escort when leaving the ground. Hill's best performance of the series was at his home town, Adelaide, in the Third Test. Hill scored 88 before being dismissed by Ted Arnold, caught by the wicket-keeper. Australia won the Test by 216 runs.
England cricket team
England won the 1890 Ashes Series 2–0, with the third match of the series being the first Test match to be abandoned. England lost 2–1 in the 1891–92 series, although England regained the urn the following year. England again won the 1894–95 series, winning 3–2 under the leadership of Andrew Stoddart. In 1895–96 England played Test South Africa, winning all Tests in the series. The 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Lord Hawke, W. G. Grace and Herbert Bainbridge who was the captain of Warwickshire. Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played. England lost the 1899 Ashes series 1–0, with WG Grace making his final Test appearance in the first match of the series.
England cricket team
England's first match after the war was in the 1920–21 season against Australia. Still feeling the effects of the war England went down to a series of crushing defeats and suffered their first whitewash losing the series 5–0. Six Australians scored hundreds while Mailey spun out 36 English batsmen. Things were no better in the next few Ashes series losing the 1921 Ashes series 3–0 and the 1924–5 Ashes 4–1. England's fortunes were to change in 1926 as they regained the Ashes and were a formidable team during this period dispatching Australia 4–1 in the 1928–29 Ashes tour.
1989 Ashes series
The Australian series victory began a 19-year period of Australian dominance that would see the Australians win the next three Ashes series in England, and four Ashes series in Australia, until England eventually regained the Ashes in the 2005 Ashes series.
The Ashes
In a rain-hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a 1–0 victory with a win in the final Test at The Oval. Because the series was at stake, the match was to be "timeless", i.e., played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe took the score to 49–0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and England won the game comfortably. Australian captain Herbie Collins was stripped of all captaincy positions down to club level, and some accused him of throwing the match.
The Ashes
The Ashes resumed after the war when England toured in 1946–47 and, as in 1920–21, found that Australia had made the better post-war recovery. Still captained by Bradman and now featuring the potent new-ball partnership of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, Australia was convincing 3–0 winners.
History of the England cricket team to 1939
Four ball overs gave way to five ball overs in the 1890s and to six ball overs in Australia, as the game continued to develop quickly. England won the 1890 Ashes series 2–0, although Jack Barrett carried his bat for 67 through Australia's second innings of 176 at Lord's. W. G. Grace was out second ball in the first innings but saw England home in the second with 75*. Frederick Martin took 12 Australian wickets for 102 but 'Nutty' never played an Ashes match again. The third scheduled match, at Old Trafford, was the first Test to be abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The Ashes
A dramatic series in 1956 saw a record that will probably never be beaten: off-spinner Jim Laker's monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 68 of 191 overs to take 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets in the Fourth Test. It was Australia's second consecutive innings defeat in a wet summer, and the hosts were in strong positions in the two drawn Tests, in which half the playing time was washed out. Bradman rated the team that won the series 2–1 as England's best ever.
Third Test, 1948 Ashes series
The Third Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between teams representing Australia and England. The match was played at Old Trafford in Manchester from 8–13 July, with a rest day on 11 July. The match was drawn after the whole of the fourth day and the first half of the fifth day was washed out due to rain; England had the upper hand before the weather intervened. The draw maintained Australia's 2–0 lead in the series, which was established through victories in the first two Tests. As Australia were the holders of The Ashes, the draw meant that England could do no better than level the series 2–2 by winning the last two Tests, and thus Australia retained The Ashes.
Centenary Test
Centenary Test refers to two matches of Test cricket played between the English cricket team and the Australian cricket team, the first in 1977 and the second in 1980. These matches were played to mark the 100th anniversaries of the first Test cricket matches played in Australia (1877) and in England (1880) respectively. Neither match was played for The Ashes.
1989 Ashes series
The 1989 Ashes series was a series of Test cricket matches contested between England and Australia for the Ashes. It formed part of the 1989 Australian tour of England. The six-Test series began on 8 June 1989 at Headingley in Leeds and ended on 29 August 1989 at The Oval in London.
2013 Ashes series
It was the first Ashes series held in England since 1977 not to include a match at Edgbaston.
2005 Ashes series
In March, Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, said that this Ashes series would be the closest since Australia's dominance began in 1989. Since 1989, when Australia started their winning Ashes streak, England had lost by more than one match in all but one of the series played, that of 1997. During that period Australia were the pre-eminent side in the world, while England had dropped from being the top-rated in 1981 to sixth for much of the 1990s. They reached a low point in 1999 with a series loss to New Zealand leaving them bottom of the unofficial "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack" rankings. However, since the previous series in 2002–03, England had improved on their fifth place in the official rankings, and were second before this series. Australia were still top-ranked, but England had won 14 and drawn three of their 18 previous Test matches since March 2004, and had won six successive series. Nonetheless, before the First Test some Australians, including fast bowler Glenn McGrath, were suggesting that a 5–0 win in the series for Australia was a serious possibility.
The Ashes
After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903–04. England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book "How We Recovered The Ashes". The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as "The Ashes".
The Oval
In 1868, 20,000 spectators gathered at The Oval for the first game of the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England, the first tour of England by any foreign side. Thanks to C.W. Alcock, the Secretary of Surrey from 1872 to 1907, the first Test match in England was played at The Oval in 1880 between England and Australia. The Oval, thereby, became the second ground to stage a Test, after Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In 1882, Australia won the Test by seven runs within two days. "The Sporting Times" printed a mocking obituary notice for English cricket, which led to the creation of the Ashes trophy, which is still contested whenever England plays Australia. The first Test double century was scored at The Oval in 1884 by Australia's Billy Murdoch.
The Ashes
Australia won the 1977 Centenary Test which was not an Ashes contest, but then a storm broke as Kerry Packer announced his intention to form World Series Cricket. WSC affected all Test-playing nations but it weakened Australia especially as the bulk of its players had signed up with Packer; the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) would not select WSC-contracted players and an almost completely new Test team had to be formed. WSC came after an era during which the duopoly of Australian and English dominance dissipated; the Ashes had long been seen as a cricket world championship but the rise of the West Indies in the late 1970s challenged that view. The West Indies would go on to record resounding Test series wins over Australia and England and dominated world cricket until the 1990s.
1958–59 Ashes series
The 1958–59 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each scheduled for six days with eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1958–59, and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The England team led by Peter May was labelled the strongest ever to leave England. It had the formidable bowling attack of Fred Trueman, Frank Tyson, Brian Statham, Peter Loader, Jim Laker and Tony Lock; the all-rounder Trevor Bailey; the outstanding wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans; and the batting of Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Raman Subba Row and Ted Dexter. They had won the last three Ashes series in 1953, 1954–55 and 1956, but lost the series 4–0 to Australia. It was one of the biggest upsets in Test cricket history and the biggest margin of defeat in an Ashes series since the 5–0 "whitewashing" inflicted by Warwick Armstrong's Australians in 1920–21.
England cricket team
Test cricket resumed after the Second World War in 1946, and England won their first match back against India. However, they struggled in the 1946–1947 Ashes series, losing 3–0 in Australia under Wally Hammond's captaincy. England beat South Africa 3–0 in 1947 with Dennis Compton scoring 1,187 runs in the series.
History of Australian cricket
The long road back for Australian cricket started in India in 1986-87. Border, along with Bob Simpson in a new role as coach, set out to identify a group of players that a team could form around. These players showed some of the steel necessary in the famous tied Test at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Returning to the subcontinent for the World Cup in 1987, Australia surprised the cricket world by defeating England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata to win the tournament with a disciplined brand of cricket. By the 1989 Ashes tour, the development of players such as Steve Waugh and David Boon and the discovery of Mark Taylor and Ian Healy had reaped rewards. The 4-0 drubbing of England was the first time since 1934 that Australia had recovered the Ashes away from home and marked the resurgence of Australia as a cricketing power. Australia would hold the Ashes for the next 16 years.
The Ashes
In Australia, the grounds currently used are the Gabba in Brisbane (first staged an England–Australia Test in the 1932–33 season), Adelaide Oval (1884–85), the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) (1876–77), and the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) (1881–82). A single Test was held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in 1928–29. Traditionally, Melbourne hosts the Boxing Day Test and Sydney hosts the New Year Test. Additionally the WACA in Perth (1970–71) hosted its final Ashes Test in 2017–18 and is due to be replaced by Perth Stadium for the 2021–22 series.
The Ashes (rugby league)
The Ashes series, similar to the cricket series of the same name, was a best-of-three series of test matches between the British and Australian national rugby league football teams. It was contested 39 times from 1908 until 2003 largely with hosting rights alternating between the two countries. From 1973 Australia won thirteen consecutive Ashes series.
The Ashes
The 2009 series began with a tense draw in the First Test at SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, with England's last-wicket batsmen James Anderson and Monty Panesar surviving 69 balls. England then achieved its first Ashes win at Lord's since 1934 to go 1–0 up. After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, the fourth match at Headingley was convincingly won by Australia by an innings and 80 runs to level the series. Finally, England won the Fifth Test at The Oval by a margin of 197 runs to regain the Ashes. Andrew Flintoff retired from Test cricket soon afterwards.
The Ashes
In the 20 years following Bligh's campaign the term "the Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series, at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs ("With Bat and Ball", 1899), used the term as if it were well known.
The Ashes
Australia recovered the Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953, though no Test cricket was played during the Second World War.
2010–11 Ashes series
As with other recent Ashes series in Australia, this series was played at the main cricket grounds in Australia's five largest cities. Tickets for the Ashes series started selling on 25 July 2010, and within a week many Test days were sold out.
The Ashes
In 1896 England under the captaincy of W. G. Grace won the series 2–1, and this marked the end of England's longest period of Ashes dominance.
The Ashes
Later in 1882, following the famous Australian victory at The Oval, Bligh led an England team to Australia, as he said, to "recover those ashes". Publicity surrounding the series was intense, and it was at some time during this series that the Ashes urn was crafted. Australia won the First Test by nine wickets, but in the next two England were victorious. At the end of the Third Test, England were generally considered to have "won back the Ashes" 2–1. A fourth match was played, against a "United Australian XI", which was arguably stronger than the Australian sides that had competed in the previous three matches; this game, however, is not generally considered part of the 1882–83 series. It "is" counted as a Test, but as a standalone. This match ended in a victory for Australia.
2013–14 Ashes series
The 2013–14 Ashes (named Commonwealth Bank Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a Test cricket series between England and Australia. The five venues for the series were the Brisbane Cricket Ground, the Adelaide Oval, the WACA Ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Ashes
Australia came into the next Ashes series in England as favourites to retain the Ashes. Although England won the first Test in Cardiff, Australia won comfortably in the second Test at Lords. In the next two Tests, the Australian batsmen struggled, being bowled out for 136 in the first innings at Edgbaston , with England proceeding to win by eight wickets. This was followed by Australia being bowled out for 60 as Stuart Broad took fastest five wickets and finished the spell with 8 for 15 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, the quickest - in terms of balls faced - a team has been bowled out in the first innings of a Test match. With victory by an innings and 78 runs on the morning of the third day of the Fourth Test, England regained the Ashes.
2005 Ashes series
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. The final result was a 2–1 series win for England, who succeeded (for the first time since 1986–87) in their biennial attempt to win the urn.
The Sporting Times
The England cricket team toured Australia during the winter of 1882, and after it had won two out of three Tests its captain was presented with an urn containing the ashes of a cricket bail. Since then, The Ashes is the notional trophy England and Australia play for in Test match cricket. The urn is kept in the Lord's Cricket Ground museum. Due to its age and fragile condition, the original Ashes urn is not presented to the winning team; instead a Waterford Crystal trophy (first presented in 1999) and replica urns are presented.
Second Test, 1948 Ashes series
The Second Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at Lord's in London from 24 to 29 June, with a rest day on 27 June. Australia won the match by 409 runs to take a 2–0 lead, meaning that England would need to win the remaining three matches to regain The Ashes.