Some Great Ashes Battles Twixt England and Australia 1897

Title : Some Great Ashes Battles Twixt England and Australia 1897  
Author : George Giffen
Source : Windsor Magazine
Year Published : 1898
Page Count : 12
Image Count : 8
Word Count : 8851
File Size in MB : 6.8
File Type : PDF

"What are “The Ashes” ? Nothing more nor less than the ashes of English cricket. A London paper immortalised them when the 1882 Australian Eleven defeated England at Kennington Oval; and ever since newspaper writers have alluded to test matches between representatives of England and Australia as the Fights for the Ashes. Until 1882 there were no ashes. In 1877 an Australian Eleven defeated eleven representative English professionals at Sydney; but although that contest has always been regarded as the first of a series of half a hundred test matches, no one for a moment considered that Lillywhite’s team thoroughly represented the Mother Country. England’s supremacy was unquestioned, and continued so until the 1882 Eleven won so sensationally at the Oval. Since then there have been many gallant fights for the ashes, and numbered amongst them are some of the greatest games recorded in the annals of cricket. Who would ever have imagined..."