The Ashes: History, Rivalry and the Story of the Urn

The Ashes is the Test cricket series played between England and Australia, and its history goes back to 1882, when Australia beat England at The Oval and a London newspaper printed a mock obituary saying English cricket had died and “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”. England’s captain Ivo Bligh promised to bring those ashes back, and a tiny terracotta urn became the symbol of the oldest and most famous rivalry in the sport.

Since then the two countries have played more than 70 Ashes series, with Australia holding a slight overall lead. The urn itself almost never travels; it lives at Lord’s. What changes hands is the right to say you hold the Ashes, and in both countries that still matters more than almost anything else in cricket.

Key facts about the Ashes

• Teams: England and Australia, men’s Test cricket (there is also a multi-format women’s Ashes).
• Origin: Australia’s seven-run win at The Oval in August 1882 and the mock obituary that followed in the Sporting Times.
• The urn: a small terracotta urn, roughly 11cm tall, kept in the MCC Museum at Lord’s since 1927.
• Rules of holding: the side that holds the Ashes keeps them if a series is drawn.
• Most recent series: Australia won the 2025-26 series at home 4-1 (as of October 2026).
• Format: usually five Tests, with series alternating between England and Australia roughly every two years.

How the Ashes began: The Oval, 1882

England had lost Tests to Australia before 1882, but never at home. That changed on 29 August 1882 at The Oval. Chasing just 85 to win, England were bowled out for 77, and Australia won by seven runs.

The architect was Fred Spofforth, the fast bowler nicknamed “The Demon”. He took seven wickets in each innings, 14 in the match, and by the end the crowd was reportedly so tense that one spectator is said to have died of a heart attack. The scale of the shock is hard to overstate. England were supposed to be the masters of the game, and a touring side from the colonies had beaten them on their own ground.

The mock obituary

A few days later the Sporting Times ran a short notice, written by the journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks, mourning the death of English cricket. It ended by saying the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. It was a joke, but it stuck.

That winter England toured Australia under the Honourable Ivo Bligh, and the English press framed the trip as a quest to “recover those ashes”. England won the three-match series against Bill Murdoch’s Australians 2-1 (a fourth match was played afterwards and won by Australia, which is why you’ll sometimes see the result described differently).

The story of the urn

This is the part of Ashes history that most fans half-know and few could explain. The urn was never designed as a trophy. During Bligh’s tour, a group of women in Victoria, including Florence Morphy, presented him with a small urn as a personal, light-hearted gift. Bligh later married Florence, and the urn stayed with the family as a keepsake for more than four decades.

When Bligh (by then Lord Darnley) died in 1927, his widow gave the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club. It has been on display at Lord’s ever since, and you can see it in the MCC Museum. The MCC at Lord’s treats it as one of its most precious objects, and it has only left England a couple of times, most notably for exhibition tours of Australia.

What is actually inside?

Nobody knows for certain. The most commonly told version is that the urn contains the burnt remains of a bail, possibly one used in a match on Bligh’s tour. Other accounts have suggested a ball, and a member of the Darnley family once claimed it held the ashes of a veil. The MCC has never opened it to settle the question, and given how fragile it is, it probably never will.

The replica trophy

Because the original is too delicate to be handed to winning captains, a larger Waterford Crystal replica was introduced for the 1998-99 series. That’s the trophy you see lifted on the balcony at the end of a series. The terracotta original stays behind glass, which is part of its mystique.

How the Ashes works today

An Ashes series is a bilateral Test series, usually of five matches, played alternately in England and Australia. Over the years there have been series of three, four, five and six Tests, but five has been the standard for decades.

The key rule that confuses new fans: the holders retain the Ashes if the series is drawn. To take the urn off the holders, the challenging side has to win the series outright. That’s why Australia “retained” the Ashes after drawn series in 2019 and 2023, even though neither side won.

Since 2019 Ashes Tests have also counted towards the World Test Championship, so every result carries points as well as pride. In practice, players and fans on both sides would still trade a WTC final place for an Ashes win without much hesitation.

Women’s Ashes

England and Australia’s women also play for the Ashes, and the women’s history stretches back to the first women’s Test in 1934-35. Since 2013 the women’s Ashes has used a multi-format points system, combining a Test with one-day internationals and T20 internationals, so a single result doesn’t decide everything. Australia have dominated the women’s version in recent years.

The great eras of Ashes history

The rivalry has swung back and forth for more than 140 years. Here’s a rough tour through the periods that shaped it.

Bradman and Bodyline (1930s)

Don Bradman arrived in England in 1930 and scored 974 runs in the series, still a record for a single Test series. That included 334 at Headingley. England’s response for the 1932-33 tour in Australia was the most controversial plan in cricket history.

Captain Douglas Jardine had his fast bowlers, led by Harold Larwood, bowl short at the batsman’s body with a packed leg-side field. Australians called it Bodyline. It worked, in that England won the series 4-1 and Bradman’s average fell to around 56, but it strained relations between the two countries to the point that cables went back and forth between the cricket boards. The laws were later changed to limit fielders behind square on the leg side.

The Invincibles (1948)

Bradman’s last tour, in 1948, produced one of the greatest teams ever. Australia went through the whole tour of England unbeaten and won the Test series 4-0, earning the nickname “The Invincibles”. The famous footnote: Bradman needed only four runs in his final Test innings at The Oval to finish with a Test average of 100, and was bowled second ball for a duck by Eric Hollies. He finished on 99.94.

Laker’s match (1956)

At Old Trafford in 1956, England off-spinner Jim Laker took 19 wickets in the match, 9 for 37 and 10 for 53. No bowler has taken more than 17 in any other first-class match, never mind a Test. It remains one of the most untouchable records in the game.

Botham’s Ashes (1981)

England were following on at Headingley in 1981, with bookmakers famously offering 500-1 against them. Ian Botham smashed 149 not out, and Bob Willis then took 8 for 43 as Australia, chasing 130, collapsed for 111. Botham went on to influence the next two Tests as well, and the summer has been known as “Botham’s Ashes” ever since.

Australian dominance (1989 to 2003)

From 1989 Australia won eight Ashes series in a row. Allan Border’s side started it, and Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh’s teams carried it on, built around Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and a batting order that rarely failed. Warne’s first ball in an Ashes Test, at Old Trafford in 1993, spun sharply to bowl Mike Gatting and became known as the “Ball of the Century”. For English fans, this was a long, grim stretch.

2005: the greatest series?

Many people who watched it still call the 2005 series the best Test cricket ever played. Australia won the first Test at Lord’s comfortably, then England won at Edgbaston by two runs, one of the narrowest margins in Test history. You can relive that finish on our Edgbaston 2005 highlights page.

Old Trafford was a draw that ended with Australia’s last pair hanging on, England won a tense chase at Trent Bridge, and Kevin Pietersen’s 158 at The Oval secured a 2-1 series win and England’s first Ashes since 1986-87. Andrew Flintoff became a national hero, and the image of him consoling Brett Lee after Edgbaston is one of the most famous sporting pictures of the century.

Swings in both directions (2006 to 2015)

Australia responded with a 5-0 whitewash in 2006-07, the farewell series for Warne, McGrath and Justin Langer. England then won at home in 2009 and, under Andrew Strauss, won 3-1 in Australia in 2010-11, their first series win down under in 24 years. Alastair Cook scored 766 runs in that series.

England won again in 2013, before Mitchell Johnson’s fast bowling destroyed them 5-0 in 2013-14. Johnson took 37 wickets in the series. England reclaimed the urn in 2015, with Stuart Broad’s 8 for 15 at Trent Bridge bowling Australia out for 60 before lunch on the first day.

Australia’s long hold (2017 onwards)

Australia won 4-0 in 2017-18 and have held the Ashes ever since. The 2019 series was drawn 2-2, and it gave us Ben Stokes’ extraordinary unbeaten 135 at Headingley, when England chased 359 with the last pair adding 76. If you’ve never watched it properly, our Stokes at Headingley highlights are worth your time.

Australia won 4-0 at home in 2021-22, and the 2023 series in England, the first proper test of Brendon McCullum and Stokes’ attacking “Bazball” approach against Australia, finished 2-2, so Australia kept the urn.

The 2025-26 series

The most recent series was played in Australia over the 2025-26 summer, and Australia won it 4-1. Two of the Tests, the opener in Perth and the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, were over inside two days. England’s win at the MCG was their first Test victory in Australia since January 2011, ending a long run of defeats and draws there, but Australia were too strong across the series as a whole. As of October 2026, Australia still hold the Ashes.

Ashes series results since 2005

This table covers the modern era, which is what most current fans remember. Results are given from the winning side’s point of view.

Series	Host	Result	Ashes held by
2005	England	England won 2-1	England
2006-07	Australia	Australia won 5-0	Australia
2009	England	England won 2-1	England
2010-11	Australia	England won 3-1	England
2013	England	England won 3-0	England
2013-14	Australia	Australia won 5-0	Australia
2015	England	England won 3-2	England
2017-18	Australia	Australia won 4-0	Australia
2019	England	Drawn 2-2	Australia (retained)
2021-22	Australia	Australia won 4-0	Australia
2023	England	Drawn 2-2	Australia (retained)
2025-26	Australia	Australia won 4-1	Australia

One pattern jumps out. Home advantage has been enormous. England haven’t won a series in Australia since 2010-11, and Australia haven’t won a series in England since 2001, though they’ve retained the urn there twice with draws.

Ashes records worth knowing

Some Ashes records feel almost fictional, even now.

• Most runs in Ashes Tests: Don Bradman, 5,028 runs at an average of 89.78.
• Most wickets in Ashes Tests: Shane Warne, 195.
• Most runs in a series: Bradman’s 974 in England in 1930.
• Best match figures: Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 at Old Trafford in 1956.
• Narrowest win by runs: Australia by three runs at Melbourne in 1982-83 and England by two runs at Edgbaston in 2005 are among the closest finishes.

Bradman’s figures are the ones that stop people in their tracks. Plenty of great batsmen have averaged around 50 in Ashes cricket. He averaged nearly 90 over two decades.

Why the Ashes rivalry still matters

Part of it is simply age. The Ashes predates the World Cup in football, the modern Olympics and almost every competition that fans now take for granted. Generations of families in both countries have followed it, and the stories get passed down.

Part of it is the national relationship. England and Australia share a language, a sporting culture and a lot of history, which makes the rivalry close and personal rather than hostile. Australians love beating “the Poms” and English fans love nothing more than winning down under, partly because it happens so rarely.

And part of it is the cricket itself. Five Tests over six or seven weeks is a proper examination. Form swings, injuries pile up, and a series can turn on one session, as it did at Headingley in 1981 and 2019. Short formats are brilliant entertainment, but nothing else in cricket builds pressure quite like an Ashes summer. Our classic highlights collection has several of the moments that made it.

The crowds and the culture

The Ashes has its own traditions. The Boxing Day Test at the MCG regularly draws crowds that dwarf almost any other Test. England’s travelling fans, the Barmy Army, follow the team around Australia and sing through the worst defeats. Lord’s in an Ashes summer is a different place from Lord’s in any other Test.

There’s also the sledging, the pre-series predictions of 5-0 that nobody quite believes, and the media pile-on whenever a touring team loses the first Test. All of it is part of the package.

Common myths and misunderstandings about the Ashes

“The winners get the urn”

They don’t. The original urn stays at Lord’s whoever wins. Winning captains lift the Waterford Crystal replica, which has been used since 1998-99.

“The urn was made as a trophy in 1882”

It wasn’t. The urn was a private gift to Ivo Bligh during the 1882-83 tour and wasn’t treated as a formal trophy for decades. The idea of “playing for the Ashes” was a newspaper phrase long before the urn became famous.

“A drawn series means nobody holds the Ashes”

The holders keep them. That’s why Australia have held the Ashes continuously since 2017-18, despite drawn series in England in 2019 and 2023.

“We know what’s inside”

We don’t. The bail theory is the best known, but it has never been confirmed, and the MCC has no plans to open the urn.

“The Ashes is always five Tests”

Five is the norm now, but six-Test series were common in the 1970s and 1980s, and earlier series varied a lot. The 2005 and 2019 series were both five Tests, as was 2025-26.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called the Ashes?

After Australia beat England at The Oval in 1882, the Sporting Times printed a mock obituary for English cricket, saying the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. England’s next tour was billed as a mission to bring the ashes back.

Who won the last Ashes series?

Australia won the 2025-26 series at home 4-1. England’s only win came in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Australia have held the Ashes since 2017-18.

Where is the Ashes urn kept?

The original urn is kept in the MCC Museum at Lord’s in London. It was given to the MCC after Ivo Bligh’s death in 1927 and has rarely left the ground since.

What happens if an Ashes series is drawn?

The team that already holds the Ashes keeps them. The challengers have to win the series outright to take the urn.

How often is the Ashes played?

Roughly every two years, alternating between England and Australia, though the gap varies with the international schedule. Ashes Tests also count towards the World Test Championship.

Who has the best Ashes record?

Overall, Australia have won slightly more series than England. Individually, Don Bradman holds the run-scoring records and Shane Warne took the most wickets, with 195.

If this has you wanting more Test cricket history, head to our cricket hub for fixtures, results and highlights, or start with England’s great escape at Edgbaston in 2005.