The Background
The first Test match between England and Australia was played in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their tour that year (1882) 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 their second innings, the Australians, boosted by a spectacular 55 runs off 60 deliveries from Hugh Massie, managed 122.
With England needing only 85 runs, in last innings of the match, their win seemed assured, but the Australians were determined to pull off an unlikely victory after an unsporting incident in the previous innings. The famous English champion Dr W G Grace had controversially run out Australian batsman Sam Jones when he was clearly not trying to complete a run.
This run out infuriated the Australian players, especially their bowling spearhead, Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth. Before they took the field for the final innings Spofforth assured his teammates that ‘this thing can be done’. An hour into the innings England still seemed certain to win – the total was reduced to 34 with seven wickets still in hand and Grace still at the crease. However, the course of the match changed dramatically when Grace’s wicket fell, triggering one of the most famous collapses in cricketing history.
When Ted Peate, England's last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, but Peate managed only two before he was bowled by Harry Boyle. An astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost to a colony. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle and Spofforth to the pavilion.
When Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd (one of the best batsman in England, having already hit two centuries that season against the colonists) to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."
The Christening Of THE ASHES
"In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP. NB The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia."
Australia's first victory on English soil over the full strength of England, on August 29, 1882, inspired a young London journalist, Reginald Shirley Brooks, to write this mock "obituary''. It appeared in the Sporting Times.
Before England's defeat at The Oval, by seven runs, arrangements had already been made for the Hon. Ivo Bligh, afterwards Lord Darnley, to lead a team to Australia. Three weeks later they set out, now with the popular objective of recovering the Ashes. In the event, Australia won the first Test by nine wickets, but with England winning the next two it became generally accepted that they brought back the Ashes.
The LOVE STORY entailed
It was long believed that the real Ashes - a small urn thought to contain the ashes of a bail used in the third match - were presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. However, recent research suggests the urn was given to Bligh before the series had even begun. After a social match involving some of the English team during a stay at Sir William Clarke’s Rupertswood estate in Sunbury, Victoria, Lady Clarke – no doubt aware of the banter in the press – presented Bligh with a small vase containing ashes. Despite inconsistent reports about what was burned to create the ashes – a cricket bail, a stump, the cover of a ball, or even a lady’s veil – this modest gift to Bligh has become a cricketing icon.
It is likely that for Bligh the personal significance of the urn extended beyond memories of cricket matches: he fell in love with one of the ladies involved in the presentation – Florence Morphy, the Clarke children’s music teacher. The Englishman visited Rupertswood several times during the 1882–83 tour and despite their differing social status – Bligh was the second son of the sixth Earl of Darnley and Morphy a colonial governess who had grown up in a state of ‘genteel poverty’ – romance blossomed. They married in February 1884 at St Mary’s Church in Sunbury. After the death of his brother in 1900, Bligh became the eighth Earl of Darnley and Florence, the Countess of Darnley. The Ashes urn remained with Bligh until his death in 1927 when Florence, no doubt aware of the increasing significance of the urn, gifted it to Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
Although initially a joke created by the media and indulged by opposing players, the Ashes legend endured. While the urn itself it has never officially been considered a trophy, in the eyes of cricket fans it became the physical representation of the mythical ‘ashes’. The Ashes urn is now one of sport’s most celebrated artefacts and attracts 50,000 visitors a year to the MCC museum. Despite originating in Australia it has only returned once – for the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations. Later this year the Ashes urn again visits our shores to coincide with the 2006–07 3 mobile Ashes Test Series, this time for public viewing in a touring exhibition developed by the MCC.
The text on the urn is as :-
When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.
A replica was made of the original urn to preserve the original urn in 1998-99 which also serve as the trophy to winner of one of the most keenly contested cricket series.
Refrences :
http://www.espncricinfo.com/engvaus2009/content/story/259985.html
Image source used