The Ashes at Lord's

by A.C. de Silva

THE ASHES .....Cricket is a game much treasured by a number of nations and after Test cricket proper had started, it developed into a legend and has resulted in one of the most treasured passions at Lord's, which turned out to be the headquarters of the game for a long time.

On August 29 in 1882, an Australian Test team defeated the full strength of England on English soil for the first time by the narrow margin of seven runs and the following day a mock obituary notice written by Shirley Breaks, son of the then Editor of Punch, appeared in the SPORTING TIMES. It read: "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, R.I.P.

"N.B.: The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia."

The following winter, the Hon. Ivo Bligh, afterwards Lord Darnley, took a team to Australia to recover the mythical Ashes. Australia won the first match by nine wickets but England won the next two and the real ashes came into being when some ladies of Melbourne burnt a stump used in the third Test and presented the Ashes in an urn to Ivo Bligh.

When Lord Darnley died in 1927 he bequeathed the urn to the M.C.C where it held a place of honour in the Long Room at Lord's until 1953 when it was moved with other cricket treasurers to the new Imperial Cricket Memorial near the pavilion at Lord's.

There it stands with the velvet bag in which it was presented to Lord Darnley. With it is shown the scoreboard of the 1882 match.