The oldest and most storied rivalry in cricket is contested, notionally, for a terracotta urn about ten and a half centimetres tall — small enough to fit in a coat pocket, fragile enough that it almost never travels, and so ambiguous in origin that nobody is entirely certain what is inside it. The Ashes began not with a trophy but with a joke, and the joke began with a funeral notice.
On 29 August 1882, at The Oval, Australia beat England in England for the first time, by seven runs — one of the most dramatic finishes cricket has known. Chasing a mere 85, England were routed by the fast bowler Frederick Spofforth, known as "The Demon", who had declared beforehand that the thing could be done and took fourteen wickets in the match to do it. Spectators reportedly chewed through umbrella handles in the tension. Four days later the Sporting Times published a mock obituary, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks: "In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882... The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." English cricket, in other words, was dead, and the colonials had the remains.
That winter an England team under the Honourable Ivo Bligh sailed for Australia, with Bligh gamely promising to "recover those ashes". England won the series 2-1, and the metaphor then became an object. A group of Melbourne women — among them Florence Morphy, governess and companion at the Rupertswood estate outside Melbourne where the English team spent Christmas — presented Bligh with a small terracotta urn said to contain the ashes of a burnt cricket bail. Or possibly a ball covering, or, in one family tradition, a lady's veil; the contents have never been scientifically examined, and the urn's own paper label, with its pasted verse mentioning "the ashes", is the only testimony. The romance survived the ambiguity comfortably. Bligh married Florence Morphy the following year, which is why cricket's great trophy is also, at bottom, a courtship gift.
The trophy that isn't a trophy
Here is the detail that surprises even many cricket followers: the urn is not, and has never been, the official trophy of the Ashes. Bligh regarded it as a personal memento, and it sat on his mantelpiece for four decades. When he died in 1927, as Lord Darnley, his widow Florence presented it to the Marylebone Cricket Club, and it has lived in the MCC Museum at Lord's ever since — regardless of who holds the Ashes. Australia has won the series dozens of times, and the urn has visited Australia three times: in 1988 for the bicentenary, on a museum tour in 2006-07, and for an exhibition in Melbourne in 2019-20. Australian campaigns to have it "returned" or held by the winners have always foundered on its fragility and its legal status as a museum artefact. Since the 1998-99 series, winning captains have instead lifted a Waterford crystal replica trophy; the terracotta original stays behind glass.
Why the little urn endures
The name itself very nearly vanished. After Bligh's tour the phrase fell out of everyday use for two decades, and it was only revived — and made permanent — in the early 1900s, helped by England captain Pelham Warner's book about the victorious 1903-04 tour, pointedly titled "How We Recovered the Ashes". From then on the Ashes became the fixture around which both countries' cricketing calendars turn, played roughly every two years, alternating hemispheres, and producing most of the sport's canonical drama — Bodyline in 1932-33, Botham's Headingley resurrection of 1981, the 2005 series widely called the greatest ever. Through all of it, the prize has remained a conceit: teams compete to "hold" ashes that are really a Victorian satirical device given ceramic form by a house party. That is precisely its charm. Football's World Cup is gold; the America's Cup is silver, and enormous; cricket's most venerated object is four inches of terracotta commemorating a defeat, created by the losers, containing the cremated remains of nobody knows quite what, and permanently retired from the contest fought in its name. Sport has grander trophies. It has none with a better sense of humour.
Quiz nuggets
- The Ashes originated with the Sporting Times' mock obituary for English cricket after Australia's seven-run win at The Oval on 29 August 1882.
- Fred "The Demon" Spofforth took 14 wickets in that match; the obituary said the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.
- The terracotta urn, about 10.5cm tall, was given to England captain Ivo Bligh at Christmas 1882 by Melbourne women including Florence Morphy, whom he later married.
- The urn is a personal memento, not the official trophy: Bligh's widow gave it to the MCC in 1927 and it stays at Lord's, having visited Australia three times.
- Since 1998-99 the winning side has lifted a Waterford crystal replica; the urn's contents — reputedly a burnt bail — have never been verified.