Australia and England played the first official test match in cricket in 1877. It was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with Australia winning the match in front of the home side. Within the next five years, the two sides had faced each other in eight test matches.
During the 1882-83 season, the English side lost the one-off test they played against Australia. The Australian side won a low-scoring thriller at The Oval as the English side fell seven runs short of chasing 85 runs. The match marked the first instance of the English side losing on home soil.
The frustration of the English fans was evident. A journalist of the Sporting Times, Reginald Shirley Brooks published a mock obituary notice that read the following:
“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. R.I.P. N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.”
In the context of cricket, ‘the ashes’ was reported in this manner for the first time officially.
Ivo Bligh became the captain of the English side soon after. He vowed to ‘bring back the ashes’ from Australia. As a result, England won the series 2-1. This series also took place in 1882-83. However, there are many chronological disparities and various conflicting tales following this series.
Following the English side’s win, a group of Victorian ladies presented Ivo Bligh with an urn. The lady who presented the urn to Bligh was Florence Murphy. It is believed Murphy burned one of the bails used in the test match and filled it in the urn. Some other stories suggest that the ashes in the urn were of a burnt ball or the cricket stump, or the veil of Murphy. The urn was possibly made of terracotta and was originally a perfume bottle. While some say the color of the urn was red, some others believe that it was silver. Moreover, there are disputes over the original urn’s color as well. While some believe it was red, some others belive it was silver.
The presentation of the urn is said to take place in accordance with a poem published in the Melbourne Punch. The fourth stanze of this poem read ‘When Ivo comes back with the urn’ and was published in 1883.
Another school of thought for the presentation ceremony suggests that when Sir William Clarke was entertaining the English side in an evening, Murphy presented the urn to Bligh was wrapped in a velvet bag. The velvet bag was had a yellow Victor’s Olive Crown that was embroidered on it by the then wife of the New South Wales cricket teams Mrs Anne Fletcher.
Ivo Bligh married Florence Murphy and went became the Earl of Darnley. One of the features of their residence at the Cobham Hall was the urn. In 1927, Murphy gave the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club.
When the urn reached MCC, people made the urn a symbol of the England-Australia cricket rivalry. This was magnified by the urn’s display at the Long Pavillion of Lord’s and at the National Sporting Trophies exhibition.
However, up until 1903, the rivalry wasn’t officially known or named as The Ashes. It was in 1903, when Plum Warner’s English side toured Australia and won the series. Warner authored a book titled ‘How we recovered The Ashes’ and thus was the first instance where the rivalry got its official name. The Australian side’s tour to England in 1905 was the first official ‘Ashes’ and was won by England.
The urn has been to Australia only three times. What has been exchanged between the two sides is a replica of the urn. The original urn is preserved in the Lord’s museum.
In the 1998-99 season, a glass trophy in the shape of an urn was given to the winning side. It was manufactured by Waterfield Crystal. As of 2025, Australia have won the event 34 times (retained six times) whereas England have won it 32 times (retained once).
