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Portrait of The Ashes

General knowledge · Sport

The Ashes

1882 (origin of the name)

Sport — cricket

The Test cricket series between England and Australia, named after a mock obituary published in The Sporting Times after Australia's first win on English soil at The Oval in 1882, which declared that English cricket had died and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". A small terracotta urn presented to Ivo Bligh in 1882–83 became the emblem of the contest; it is kept permanently in the MCC Museum at Lord's, whoever holds the series.

How to spot them

  • ▸A mock obituary of English cricket, The Sporting Times, 2 September 1882
  • ▸A terracotta urn roughly 11 cm high, never actually the trophy handed over
  • ▸Bodyline, Botham's Headingley, Warne's Ball of the Century
  • ▸Held by the incumbent until the other side wins a series outright

Key facts

A mock obituary in The Sporting Times declaring English cricket dead (1882)

Published 2 September 1882 after Australia won at The Oval by seven runs; the body was to be cremated and the remains taken to Australia

A terracotta urn about eleven centimetres high, kept in the MCC Museum at Lord's

Presented to Ivo Bligh in Australia in 1882–83, probably containing a burnt bail; given to MCC by his widow Florence after his death in 1927

Contested between England and Australia, normally over five Tests

Alternating between the two countries, roughly every two years

Douglas Jardine's leg theory tour of 1932–33 nearly caused a diplomatic incident (1932–33)

Bodyline: fast, short-pitched bowling by Harold Larwood at a packed leg-side field, aimed at containing Don Bradman

Ian Botham's 149 not out at Headingley after England followed on (1981)

England had been 500–1 against with the bookmakers; Bob Willis then took 8 for 43

Shane Warne's first ball in England, spinning past Mike Gatting at Old Trafford (1993)

The 'Ball of the Century', pitching outside leg and hitting off stump

Australia won the 2025–26 series 4–1, with Mitchell Starc taking 31 wickets (2025–26)

England won the Melbourne Test to avoid a whitewash, their first win in Australia for fourteen years

Quick-fire facts

  • •The phrase comes from The Sporting Times, 2 September 1882, after Australia won by seven runs at The Oval; Fred Spofforth took 14 wickets in the match
  • •The urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh, later 8th Earl of Darnley, during the 1882–83 tour of Australia
  • •Florence Morphy, an Australian whom Bligh married, presented the urn to MCC in 1928 after his death
  • •The urn is not the trophy: since 1998 the sides have competed for a Waterford Crystal replica, while the original stays at Lord's
  • •Don Bradman's Test average of 99.94 was ended by a second-ball duck at The Oval in 1948, needing only four runs for an average of 100
  • •Jim Laker took 19 wickets for 90 in the 1956 Old Trafford Test, still the best match figures in first-class cricket
  • •The 2005 series, won by England 2–1, is often called the greatest, with a two-run margin at Edgbaston
  • •Australia have won the most series; England's 2010–11 side was the first to win three Tests by an innings in a single series in Australia
  • •A separate Women's Ashes, contested since 1934 and now decided on points across formats, has its own urn made in 1998 from a burnt bat

Drill it — 9 cards

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Sources