The Ashes is the name given to a biennial series of test cricket matches played between England and Australia. The very first cricket test match was played between England and Australia in 1877, but the concept of ?playing for the Ashes? started some five years later when England had lost the ninth test match played between the two countries.
On their 1882 tour to England just one test match was played at The Oval in August. The pitch proved almost impossible to play on and Australia, who batted first, made only 63 runs. England, in response, played a little better but by scoring 101, did achieve a first innings lead of 38 runs.
In Australia?s second innings Hugh Massie?s 55, struck at a run a minute, enabled the tourists to make 122 runs . This had the effect that England required a mere 85 runs for victory. But they had not allowed for Fred Spofforth, dubbed ?The Demon Bowler? who refused to acknowledge defeat.
?This thing can be done? he declared and promptly succeeded in taking down the England batting. He took his final four wickets for only two runs and England lost the match by only seven runs.
This defeat sent shock waves right through the English sporting establishment and a number of mock obituaries appeared in the sporting press, including the most famous one which appeared in ?The Sporting Times? on 2 September. It read :
?In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P.
N.B.-The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.
Therefore this was the first reference in print to ?The Ashes?. The England tour of Australia later that year was captained by Ivo Bligh who was afterwards to be the Earl of Darnley. Bligh said that he would ?regain the ashes? and this he went on to do with England winning the three match series by two games to one.
However the expression ?the Ashes? did not really catch on until 1903 when Pelham (or ?Plum?) Warner led a team out to Australia with the same undertaking of regaining the ashes. This England achieved by winning the series 3 -2 . The Australian press latched on to the expression and this time it stuck.
An ?urn? to contain the ashes was created and presented to Bligh during the 1882-83 tour. It is rumoured to hold the ashes of a cricket bail. It was presented to Bligh by a group of Victorian ladies which included Bligh?s future wife.
The urn is a small terracotta vase about six inches high and might originally have contained cologne. It is so delicate that it is now kept permanently at the MCC headquarters at Lords.
There is a general conviction that the urn and its contents represent the official trophy played for by England and Australia, but it is in fact a private memento owned by the Darnley family and is just on loan to the MCC.
The trophy actually played for is a larger Waterford glass replica, but the original ?Ashes urn? still remains one of the most famous sporting icons in the world.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with tickets for London Olympics. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.