History of Ashes

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The text on the coveted Ashes urn is as follows:- 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. 1861-62 First English tour of Australia takes place under HH Stephenson. Test matches are not to be played for another 16 years, and the Ashes as such will not be contested until 20 years later. Most games were played against odds. Charles Lawrence stays behind after the tour and is instrumental in the first Australian tour to England. 1863-4 Second English tour of Australia by George Parr's team, which is unbeaten in all games, none of which are on even strength. 1868 First Australian tour of England as an Aboriginal team visits England. Promoter Charles Lawrence brings a team of 13 to England, who play 47 games, despite losing one of their number to tuberculosis, and the early departure of two others. 1873-74 Tour of mixed professional and amateur English team under WG Grace. All games are played against odds. 1876/77 Test cricket starts at Melbourne on the 15th March, 1877, as the First Test Match is won by Australia. Alfred Shaw bowls the first ball to Charles Bannerman, who scores the first test run, and later, the first Test century. Bannerman's innings of 165 composed 67% of his side's total, a record that stands to today. The England team is entirely professionals, without such players as WG Grace, and the Australian team is composed entirely of Sydney and Melbourne players. Australia 1 England 1. 1878 First full Australian tour of England. No Tests are played. The Australians beat the MCC in a single day. Spofforth takes 6 for 4 and 4 for 16, and at the other end Boyle takes 3-14 and 6 for 3. Spofforth takes 357 wickets on the tour at an average of 7.18 1878/79 A mostly amateur team under Lord Harris tours Australia Australia 1 England 0. 1880 The first Test match played in England is won by the hosts, with WG Grace scoring 152. His brother GF Grace makes a "pair" and 4 weeks later dies from a fatal chill after sleeping in a damp bed. Spofforth takes 391 wickets on tour at an average of 5.63. England 1 Australia 0. 1881/82 Shaw's team to Australia is well beaten in the Tests and rumours of match fixing surround their return. Australia 2 England 0. 1882 A sensational game at the Oval is won narrowly by Australia, who dismiss England for only 77 to win by 7 runs. Spofforth takes 14 for 90 in the match, and bowled his last 11 overs for 2 runs and 4 wickets. The first Australian win in England is marked by an obituary for English cricket - the origin of the Ashes. Australia 1 England 0. 1882/83 Bligh's team "recover the Ashes" despite drawing the Test series 2-2. The fourth game was considered unofficial, and so the Ashes Urn was presented to the Hon. Ivo Bligh after winning the 3rd Test. Australia 2 England 2. 1884 Murdoch's Australians tour England - Spofforth takes 207 wickets at 13.25 on the tour. In the final game, all eleven England players bowl in Australia's innings of 551, with the wicket-keeper Lyttelton taking 4-19, and his replacement WG Grace taking a catch from his first ball in Test cricket as a wicket-keeper. England 1 Australia 0. 1884/85 First 5 test series in Australia is played, with England winning 3-2 under Shrewsbury. First test in Adelaide is played. The tour is marred by disputes between the teams and between the Australian players and their State Associations over money. The entire Australian team from the previous team withdrew from the Melbourne test, thus allowing Samuel Morris, born in Tasmania of West Indian parents, to become the first black Test cricketer. The England player Barnes injured his hand in a fight with the Australian captain McDonnell during the First Test, and England with only 11 players on tour had to co-opt emigre Reginald Wood to play his only test. England 3 Australia 2. 1886 First tour to England that is organized by Melbourne CC rather than speculation by the players. George Giffen heads bowling and batting averages on the tour, but the Australians lose the Test series badly. Spofforth's last tour, injured in June, and took no further part. England 3 Australia 0. 1886/87 9th English team to tour Australia is all professional, with Lohmann taking 25 wickets for 189 runs in the Tests, won comfortably by England. England 2 Australia 0. 1887/88 Two English teams tour Australia simultaneously, joining to play a single Test. The Australian teams are far from representative, following further monetary disputes. England 1 Australia 0. 1888 CTB "The Terror" Turner and Ferris take 534 wickets on the England tour, but the weak Australian batting lets them down in the Tests. After winning a low scoring First Test, they go down to innings defeats in the remaining two. England 2 Australia 1. 1890 Murdoch's team to England again is handicapped by weak batting and Giffen's absence, losing both Tests played to a strong England side under WG Grace's captaincy. England 2 Australia 0. 1891/92 The 12th English team, under WG, is close to fully representative, but loses narrowly in the 3 test series after losing the first two. WG Grace's return to Australia after 18 years absence provokes great public interest. Australia 2 England 1. 1893 Blackham's team loses one Test and draws two. Trumble leads the bowling against a very strong England batting line up. 1920/21 The only 5-0 whitewash in Ashes history. Warwick Armstrong leads from the front with both bat and ball. Despite some great batting by Hobbs, Australia win all tests fairly comfortably. In the 1st Test Collins makes a century on debut, and Armstrong another hundred to set England a massive 659 to win (they fail by a wide margin). A century by Hobbs is unable to prevent an innings defeat in the second Test as Gregory's fast bowling is too much for England. Centuries for Collins, Kelleway, Pellew, Russell and Hobbs in the Third Test, again won comfortably by Australia as Mailey takes 5 wickets in each innings). Mailey stars again in an 8 wicket fourth Test win, taking 9 wickets in England's 2nd innings, and 13 in the match. Macartney's 170 and more wickets for Mailey complete a crushing 5-0 sweep. Australia 5 England 0. 1921 Armstrong's Australian's are unbeaten until the festival games at the end of the tour. Gregory and Mcdonald destroy England in the first 3 tests giving the Australians 8 wins on the trot. The last two Tests are drawn. England were without the services of Hobbs, except in the 3rd Test when illness prevented him batting. England might have won the 4th Test but for Tennyson (and the umpires) misunderstanding the declaration rules at the time. Carter (the Australian 'keeper) pointed out that the attempted declaration was too late in the day under a law introduced in 1914 but seemingly never used. In the confusion Armstrong managed to bowl the first over of Englands resumed innings, thus bowling 2 in a row. The tour will also be remembered for Macartney making 345* in less than 4 hours against Notts - the highest by an Australian in England and the most by one batsman in a day. Woolley makes a ninety in each innings of the Lord's test. Australia 3 England 0. 1924/25 Debuts for Ponsford, Sutcliffe, Maurice Tate and the first use of 8 ball overs in tests. Also the first radio commentary of Tests. Australia win 4-1 though the games were closer than that suggests. Hobbs and Sutcliffe have 4 century opening stands, the best 283 (taking more than a day) and Tate takes a then Ashes record 38 wickets. After good opening stands England's batting too often collapsed. The first three Tests go into a 7th day- all Tests were played without time restrictions. The first Test is won by Australia in a high scoring game, with hundreds for Hobbs, Woolley, Sutcliffe, Collins, JM Taylor and Ponsford (and 98 for Vic Richardson). A century in each innings for Sutcliffe in the second Test (who is on the field for all but 86 minutes of this 7 day match), but Australia win comfortably after a huge 1st innings total. The third Test is a close game, as Ryder's double century against a England attack weakened by injuries proves enough as England's batting fails in the second innings. England finally win the fourth Test against Australia 13 years after their last success. A fine opening partnership from Hobbs and Sutcliffe is followed by good batting throughout the order. Rain makes the wicket tricky, and England run out the winner by an innings, following good bowling from Tate. Clarrie Grimmett destroys England with 11 cheap wickets in the 5th Test in a fine demonstration of accurate and varied wrist spin. Australia 4 England 1. 1926 1925 and 1926 were the years of Hobbs' pomp. He scored around 3000 runs each year with 26 hundreds and 17 fifties. If this form was not quite shown in the Tests it was unthinkable in England that Hobbs would finish on the losing side. Nor did he, as the Australians lack the penetrating attack of previous tours and are not up to dismissing a strong batting side twice in 3 days, the English scarcely more so. However, after looking the more likely to win in the earlier matches the extra day and a rain affected pitch at the Oval, give England the chance to regain the Ashes which, thanks to Hobbs' and Sutcliffe's batting and the bowling of the veteran Rhodes they duly do. Only 50 minutes of play is possible in the 1st Test, and the 2nd is a high scoring draw, with centuries for Bardsley, Hendren, Hobbs and Macartney. In the 3rd Test. Macartney makes a hundred before lunch on the first day, and after further hundreds from Woodfull and V Richardson, England