Ashes, the

Cricket trophy held by the winning team in the England–Australia Test series.

The trophy is permanently held at Lord's cricket ground no matter who wins the series. It is an urn said to contain the ashes of stumps and bails used in a match when England toured Australia in 1882–83. The urn was given to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The action followed the appearance of an obituary notice in the Sporting Times the previous summer announcing the ‘death’ of English cricket after defeat by the Australians in the Oval test match.