by Chris Pearce

Created on: July 12, 2009   Last Updated: July 15, 2009

Cricket is a very popular game played in England and its previous colonies such as Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the West Indies. Every couple of years, a series of five-day "Test" matches is played between England and Australia. The winner of the series wins the Ashes. It is perhaps the highlight of the cricket calendar. One of the main dreams of cricketers from both countries is to be part of a winning Ashes series.

England and Australia first played Test match cricket in 1877 when Australia was not even a country but a series of British colonies (until 1901), and therefore never expected to beat the mother country at its national game of cricket. This was to change when the ninth Test match between the two countries was played at the Oval, London on 28 and 29 August 1882. In a low scoring match, Australia made just 63 runs in the first innings. England took a handy lead when it reached a score of 101. In the second innings, Australia scored 122, giving it a lead of 85, which England was expected to achieve easily and win the match.

But the Australian team had other ideas when they came onto the field in England's second innings. Legendary fast bowler Fred Spofforth, known as the "Demon Bowler," was fired up and took a number of English wickets, 7 for 44, to add to his first innings haul of 7 for 46. When the last batsman strode onto the ground, England still needed 10 runs to win. This batsman fell cheaply and Australia won by seven runs.

The British press, always quick to berate their own, took the English cricketers to task and congratulated the Australians for having plenty of "pluck." On 31 August, a mock obituary to English cricket appeared in Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game. It read: "Sacred to the memory of England's supremacy in the cricket field which expired on the 29th day of August, at the Oval ..." A second and better known obituary, by Reginald Brooks, was published in The Sporting Times just two days later on 2 August: "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 ... RIP ... NB - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

England was to tour Australia in 1882-83 and play four Test matches. Captain Ivo Francis Walter Bligh (later Lord Darnley) vowed to regain the "ashes" of English cricket. The first match was played in Melbourne on 30 December and 1-2 January. Australia scored

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>