The Ashes

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1:07It is the 29th of August, 1882, at the Oval Cricket Ground in London. From his seat in the press section, 27-year-old Reginald Shirley Brooks has a perfect view of the game and is scribbling notes about the action into a small notepad. Out on the field, two England batsmen are slogging it out against their Australian opposition. It is a warm day, and the sun beams down the players, who regularly pause to wipe their faces and necks with handkerchiefs pulled out from trouser pockets. For most of the afternoon, England has seemed on course for victory. But now, only two English batsmen out of 11 are left.

1:48If either of them is bowled, caught, or run out before ten runs are scored, England will lose. And the crowd knows it. Mostly English supporters, they shift uneasily behind the boundary rope. Reginald leans forward, his pencil scratching across the page as he looks between the scoreboard and pitch. With the batsmen having scraped together another few single runs, the gap is closing. They need just seven to win. Now the Australian bowler charges in, and the English batsman at the striker's end swings. The ball makes contact with the edge of the bat and flies high into the cloudless sky. As it arcs downwards, an Australian fielder steadies himself beneath it, hands covered.

2:39The ball lands safely in his grip. England's collapse is complete. they are beaten by just seven runs. The hush of the astonished crowd breaks into scattered jeers, and Reginald lets out a short breath. Australia, a far-flung outpost of the empire, have beaten England on English soil for the very first time. Snapping his notepad shut, the Sporting Times reporter shoves it into a satchel and pushes through the throng of angry fans. Outside the oval, he hails a handsome cab. London rushes past in a blur as Reginald replays the final moments of the game in his mind. This is more than a loss. It is a humiliation.

3:31When he arrives at the Sporting Times office, he unpacks his notes onto the desk, dips his pen, and begins to write.

3:41Normally his task is to produce a straightforward account of the match, but tonight frustration and embarrassment spill onto the page. In a hurried scrawl he drafts a satirical obituary. In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, he writes, which died at the Oval on the 29th August 1882, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP.

4:14Satisfied, he sets down his pen. But just as his editor strides over and reaches for the copy, Reginald snatches it back. In a final flourish, he adds, Enby, the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. Though he's referencing the fact that cremation is illegal in Britain but permitted in its colony, the real sting in the joke is the implication that the remains of the English game should be entrusted to the Australians. But with that line, history is made. It's the first time Australia have defeated England at home. But it most certainly won't be the last.

5:00Australia's victory at the Oval in 1882 was more than a single upset. It was the spark that began one of the greatest sporting contests of all time, a competition that survived world wars, diplomatic crises, and the end of empire. And it has given the game some of its most famous moments, from the body-line scandal of the 1930s to England's miraculous win in 2005 after years of loss. Today, the Ashes nears its 150th anniversary. It draws tens of thousands of spectators in packed stadiums and millions more watching on television. The contest continually resets records, swells and deflates national pride, and produces some of the most famous moments in the history of the sport.

5:46So how did a passing joke in a London newspaper ignite one of sport's greatest rivalries? What has kept the Ashes alive through generations of change? And why, in today's world of franchise leagues and faster series, do the Ashes still captivate? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is a short history of the Ashes.

6:21The story of the ashes is all about England and Australia, but the game at its heart began long before. In the 16th century, a children's game takes shape in the fields of rural England. It begins in its simplest form, in which a ball of wool is bowled at a vertical object such as a wooden gate. Another player defends this target with a shepherd's crook. The first written record of the game appears in a court document dating to 1598, in a dispute over land during which a witness refers to playing cricket on the plot in question. As time passes, it grows in popularity, spreading from village greens and into towns and cities.

7:06Part of its appeal lies in its accessibility. From the beginning, cricket is unusual in that it unites players from different social backgrounds. Simon Wilde is the cricket correspondent of the Sunday Times and author of Chasing Jessop, the mystery of England cricket's oldest record. One of cricket's great attributes was that it was played by people from all classes. You'd literally have lords playing with commoners and a lot of the early games would be played on the land of landowners and then their workers would be playing in the same teams with them. So cricket it was largely a rural grain to start with.

7:42And the most famous club in England was the Hambledon Club, which is in Hampshire. And that became the strongest team in the country for a long time and would take on England, you know, an England team as such, which is basically the rest of England. In 1744, the game gets its first written laws. As well as standardising measurements like the length of the pitch, the height of the stumps at either end of the pitch, and the weight and composition of the ball, the laws formalize the way the game is played. Each team comprises 11 men. A coin toss decides who will bat first and who will field. The batting team sends two players in, one at each end of the pitch.

8:25The bowling side spreads all 11 players out across the field, with one bowler trying to dismiss the batter by hitting the stumps behind them. Meanwhile, the batsmen try to score runs by knocking the oncoming ball away. Sprinting from one end to the other scores a single run. Powering the ball to the boundary of the field along the ground gives four runs, while passing the boundary in the air offers six. Batsmen may be bowled out or dismissed in a number of other ways, including when the ball is caught without bouncing or thrown at the stumps before the batsman is safely beyond them. Once ten men are dismissed, the team swap roles.

9:05By the late 1700s, London's Marylebone Cricket Club, or MCC, becomes the custodian of the laws of cricket, with its home ground recognised as the legislative and spiritual home of the sport.

9:21Now, with a clearer framework, the game expands, with structure to the clashes between local and then more distant sides. Inevitably, wherever competition exists, gambling soon follows. Rich patrons sponsor teams and arrange matches, staking money on their outcomes, and spectators flood in, eager for both entertainment and a wager. The big matches drew big crowds. One of the primary motivations for these matches was gambling. Betting was a big thing and it was part of the reason for holding the match in the first place. There'd be a big purse available to the winning team, but also there would be side bets being taken from spectators.

10:03Profits are also generated through ticket sales, and money is ploughed back into the game, giving rise to better facilities and grand pavilions. Stands become big enough to accommodate thousands. But this is the age of empire, with Britain establishing colonies across the globe. And where the British go, they carry their sports with them. Teams spring up in the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and even Australia. Back home, with cricket's rising popularity, comes better organisation. By the 1800s, the best local players are representing their towns and cities, and the best from that strata are being recruited into county sides.

10:45Those at the top levels of the sport see no reason to stop there. If they can pull in such huge numbers for games between counties, what's to prevent them playing against other nations? The professional cricketers, people who were being paid to play regularly, they were the ones who inspired an opportunity to take their cricket abroad and play in other countries and basically become a sort of troop of cricketers and they would go all over other countries and play matches in upcountry towns and villages and cities and they could make a lot of money by embarking on what were huge tours in those days.

11:27Though the first English cricketers to play internationally travel first to the United States and Canada, in 1861 a professional group make the arduous journey to Australia. Paid the grand sum of£150 each, up to£20 ,000 in today's money, the squad, unofficially representing England, travel by steam on the SS Great Britain, making endless loops around the deck and playing games like coits to keep fit. But it was a long voyage to Australia in those days. It took many weeks to get there. So it was not something you'd undertake lightly. It was a difficult journey. It took a long time. And once you were there, they would play for months on end.

12:07They would play farmers. They'd play 11 Englishmen would play 22 farmers or something. They wouldn't play on equal terms, 11 against 11, because they weren't good enough. And gradually over the years, the best Australian cricket has improved and they could take England on level terms, 11 players versus 11 players. And that's when we start getting what we now accept as test matches. In 1877, an English team make the journey to Melbourne to face the Australian national side. It's been decided that instead of playing for just one day with a single innings apiece, both teams will get a chance to bat and bowl twice.

12:45There is also now no time limit. They They will simply play until the batting side are all out, or until they believe they have enough runs to let the other side try their luck. The first England-Australian match, what is now regarded as the first Test match was in Melbourne in March 1877, and it was played on the site of the current MCG, although at the time it was called a paddock. It was a paddock, it was a field really, trees around the edges and a fence to keep people out unless they played at the gate to get in. but it was very much a rural ground. No real stance as such. You know, there wasn't a stadium.

13:23There'd be a pavilion for the players and some of the members almost, but it was a very primitive setup.

13:32But England do not arrive at full strength. In this era, cricket is divided between gentlemen amateurs who are mostly already independently wealthy and the professionals who play for wages. Unfortunately, many of the amateurs, such as the legendary WG Grace, had been recruited into a rival tour, and though the plans fell through, the division has taken its toll. The resulting England team is unbalanced, lacking not just some of its most skilled players but also its leadership. Even so, they are still favorites, and few expect Australia to pose a serious challenge. Undeterred, 10 ,000 home fans come to cheer them on.

14:15And whether it's the home advantage, the likely exaggerated quantities of beer taken by the English at lunch on the final day, or sheer Aussie dominance, by the end of the fourth day's play, the Colonials win by 45 runs.

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16:38And this time, there are no excuses. And they beat England by seven runs in a famously exciting finish at the Oval, and that was a big shock, bigger than the one over the MCC in Aids in 7th G8 because England had their very best players out. The loss cuts deep for England. The following day, Reginald Shirley Brooks publishes his satirical obituary in the Sporting Times. And though the name of the Ashes will not take root until the next time the two teams meet, the legend is already well underway.

17:17On a winter tour to Australia the next year, in advance of the next test match, Captain Ivo Bly's England team win a friendly match against regional opponents at a Melbourne country estate. After the game, the players are invited inside for a celebration. There, a group of local women present Bly with a small terracotta perfume jar, its lid sealed with ribbon. Inside, they say, are the ashes of English cricket.

17:51The ladies, the Melbourne ladies, were said to have either burnt a bale or a cricket ball. It was a family sort of keepsake initially. It wasn't sort of presented as a trophy. So we don't know, and we'll never know, I don't think. But it was said at the time to be a piece of cricket equipment, essentially. And though the day is a crucial waypoint for cricket, it's also a big moment in Bly's personal life. After meeting her at Melbourne, he will eventually marry the original owner of the urn, Florence Murphy Many years later, when she's widowed, she donates it to the Lord's Museum, where it remains to this day Back in 1882, though, reports of the urn appear in both English and Australian newspapers And the story spreads The gesture is retold, embellished and repeated until the urn itself becomes the physical emblem of the rivalry, with replicas eventually brought out for presentation every time a new winner is declared.

18:53And from here, the contests become a regular fixture. With such a lucrative arrangement in their hands, it's no surprise that England and Australia quickly fall into a cycle. they realized quite quickly that they were on something and what we see is that from the time of the first test in 1877 england and australia exchanged tours so you'd have an england team going to australia then a year or so later an australian team would come back to england and they were playing every second year so it was a regular arrangement really it was you know almost non-stop that they were playing each other and this went on for 20 or 30 years into the early 1900 and then they started to become a little bit more spaced out and they'd play five test matches in each country and they would earn a lot of money.

19:41Eventually the schedule will settle into a four-year home and away cycle, though the gap between a series in England and the next competition is shorter than the gap after Australia host to account for the seasonal differences in the two hemispheres. To claim a series, a team must win more of the five tests than their opponents. In the event of a draw, whoever previously won retains the title. From the very first ashes, the rivalry is not just about a game of bat and ball. It draws on the sense of empire, of those in power versus those without it. But those grand themes play out on a human level too Personalities dominate the narrative of the Ashes throughout its history And one of the earliest of its towering figures is England's W.G.

20:29Grace Bearded, burly, supremely talented But with a reputation for creativity when it comes to following the game's rules Grace dominates the sport, batting and bowling with equal authority His very presence raises the standard and he becomes cricket's first true superstar, drawing huge crowds whenever he plays. For decades, he is the benchmark by which all others are measured. As a gentleman player, he is also seen as part of the establishment that runs English cricket, which has a tendency to select and elevate amateurs of its own class, often ahead of more talented professionals. But while these class divisions in English cricket are stark, with the gentleman players being addressed as Sir by the professionals who merely go by their surnames, Australia does things differently.

21:25Selection here is based on merit alone, with players from farms, towns, and cities competing on equal terms. Around the turn of the century, during England's W.G. grace era the national side is captained by joe darling a farmer's son from tasmania though he comes from a comfortable background what defines him is strategic acumen and leadership not social status joe darling was an australian captain around the turn of the century he was tactically well ahead of anyone else and a very good leader the english teams will always be led by an amateur So England would often open the batting with the two amateurs.

22:05Well, there's no reason why that had to be the case, but they thought that they should start the innings as a way that a couple of gentlemen should get things going. It was a sort of social class thing, if you like. So even though a professional might be a better player, they would pick the best available amateur captain of the team. Well, the best available amateur wasn't necessarily the best player, and so the England team were sometimes a little bit dysfunctional, maybe, whereas the Australians didn't have that problem. They were sort of classless, and I think they had a better team spirit, and people like Joe Darling fostered that sense of togetherness better than England.

22:39But any momentum to rebalance power is derailed when the First World War halts cricket for four years. Grounds fall silent. Many players called into combat never return. Of the 210 English county players who serve in the conflict, 34 are killed, including England bowler Colin Blythe, who memorably took 100 wickets in only 19 tests. Among the thousands of Australians who lose their lives is Tibby Cotter, whose bowling was so fast he had a reputation for breaking stumps.

23:18By 1919, both nations are eager to see the Ashes return, but England, with too many players lost or unfit, opt to wait until the winter of 1920. They still weren't ready. They'd gone through five years of war. And obviously the Australians had been involved in the war as well, but I think the toll had been heavier in England. So England sent a team out there. Unsurprisingly, they lost 5-0. The Australians then came back to England a few months later to tour in 1921. So in fact, they'd traveled back from Australia on the same boat. And this was because everyone was so keen to get things going again and get the gate receipt money coming through again.

23:55Australia won that series 3-0, they won the first three matches, so Australia had won eight in a row at that point. It's a great run, but a true golden period for the Aussies is just around the corner. In the late 1920s, a new star is on the rise. Hailing from a rural, working-class family, Don Bradman taught himself to bat by bouncing a golf ball of a water tank and hitting it with a stump. Australia discovered a young batsman called Donald Bradman who was to be the best batsman we've ever seen in the game. He made huge scores, he broke the record for the highest score in first-class cricket, the highest score in test cricket.

24:35He broke every record going. In an era when most players average 30 or 40 runs before getting out, Bradman averages almost 100. He scores centuries with ease. Bowlers cannot stop him. To the Australians, Bradman is a source of hope and pride. To the English, he is a nightmare. His 1930 tour of England sees him rack up 974 runs, a record for a test series that remains unbroken today. His foil emerges in the form of Oxford-educated Douglas Jardine. Becoming England's captain in 1931, he is the very embodiment of the upper-class establishment. Where Bradman is instinctive and uninhibited, Jardine is calculating and severe.

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