The Royal Society of Chemistry guide to the history of the Ashes
In the summer of 1882 England suffered their first home series loss to their antipodean colonial subjects. The shock defeat resulted in the Sporting Times writing a mock obituary for English cricket, stating: "The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia".
So when England captain Ivo Bligh set off to Australia for the tour of 1882/83, he did so with a solemn promise to return with "the ashes" and a cricketing legend was born.
On that tour Bligh was presented with an urn, said to contain the ashes of a single cricket bail (hence the RSC enlisting the help of Dr Ian Slipper at Greenwich), which he kept it until his death in 1927.
Ivo Bligh's family entrusted the tiny urn to the keeping of the MCC at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, since when it has been on display, visited by thousands of curious cricket fans every year.
The urn is inscribed with a poem from a newspaper in 1883, naming the star players in the England team.
The Ashes
"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."
Playing for "the ashes" is considered to be the pinnacle of any English or Australian cricketers' career and has produced some of the most enduring moments in cricketing history, despite the prize (probably!) containing just 150 milligrams of powdered bail ash.
A bail is simply a piece of wood, turned on a lathe, according to specific rules.
Here is an excerpt from 8(3)(b) of the Laws of Cricket:
- Each bail shall conform to the following specifications:
- Overall length:- 4 5/16 in/10.95cm
- Length of barrel:- 2 1/8 in/5.40cm
- Longer spigot:- 1 3/8 in/3.49cm
- Shorter spigot:- 13/16 in/2.06cm
Perhaps ironically, bails in England tend to made from Ash, though in Australia (where the urn's contents were actually burnt) they may now be made from indigenous trees such as Gum.
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