The Ashes Explained: The Urn, the Replica and How the Series Works

Edited by Nayan Makvana · Last reviewed 24 October 2026

The Ashes is the Test series between England and Australia. The two countries played the first Test match, at Melbourne in March 1877, and the Ashes name and the small urn that represents it both come from a newspaper joke five years later. This guide sets out that history, separates what is known from what is not, and explains how the series is decided for men and women. The account of the urn follows MCC, which owns it.

The mock obituary

On 29 August 1882, at The Oval, Australia beat England by seven runs, England's first defeat by Australia on home soil. Set 85 to win, England were bowled out for 77, with the fast bowler Fred Spofforth taking 14 wickets in the match. Days later the Sporting Times printed a mock obituary for English cricket, which had died at The Oval, ending with the line that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". MCC notes that the joke also played on the debate then going on about legalising cremation in Britain.

Ivo Bligh's tour and the urn

England toured Australia that winter, 1882-83, under Ivo Bligh, who declared he would recover the Ashes; Australia's captain Billy Murdoch said he would defend them. Before the Tests began, Bligh and the amateurs in his side visited Rupertswood, the estate of Sir William Clarke near Sunbury in Victoria, and on Christmas Eve 1882 they won a scratch match against a team of estate workers. In the spirit of the joke, Lady Janet Clarke decided Bligh had earned the Ashes: a bail from the match was burned, the ashes were put in a small terracotta urn, and the urn was given to him.

Some of the story is uncertain, and MCC says so. Nobody knows where the urn itself came from; it may have been a perfume bottle or cosmetic jar picked up on the spot. Bligh's team went on to win the scheduled three-match series 2-1, and the urn may have been refilled or presented again after the third Test, when Bligh was also given a velvet bag to keep it in and a printed verse was pasted onto it. A fourth match was then arranged, which Australia won.

At Rupertswood Bligh also met Florence Morphy, the Clarke family's governess, whom he later married. The couple kept the urn until Bligh's death in 1927, by which time he was the Earl of Darnley, and Florence then presented it to MCC. The phrase "the Ashes" itself was largely forgotten for about 20 years after the 1882-83 tour, until Pelham Warner's account of his side's 1903-04 tour of Australia revived it.

Why the urn stays at Lord's

The urn is 10.5 centimetres tall, weighs about 125 grams and is more than 140 years old. It is on permanent display in the MCC Museum at Lord's, whichever side holds the Ashes. MCC regards it as the personal memento it was to the Darnleys and states plainly that it is not, and never has been, a trophy. It has travelled to Australia only three times: for less than a week during the 1988 Bicentennial, on a tour of six cities during the 2006-07 series, and for an exhibition at State Library Victoria in Melbourne over 2019-20.

The trophy the winners lift

So that the winning side has something to hold, MCC commissioned a larger replica of the urn in Waterford Crystal. It was first presented to Australia after they won the 1998-99 series, and it has been presented to the winning captain at the end of every series since.

How the series works

• Holding and retaining. The Ashes belong to whichever side won the last series. A drawn series leaves them with the holders, so the challengers must win outright to take them back. That is why the holders are said to have retained the Ashes as soon as the challengers can no longer win the series, even with Tests still to play.
• Length. Modern series are five Tests. There have been four-Test and six-Test series in the past.
• Hosting. Series alternate between England and Australia, roughly every two years, although the gap has varied.
• Other tables. Since 2019, Ashes Tests have also counted towards the World Test Championship. Neither the WTC table nor the ICC rankings has any bearing on who holds the Ashes.

The women's Ashes

England and Australia played the first women's Test series, in Australia, in 1934-35. It had no trophy until 1998, when Norma Izard, then president of the Women's Cricket Association, organised a ceremony at Lord's in which a miniature bat signed by both teams and a copy of the association's constitution were burned. The ashes were sealed in a hollow wooden ball carved from a 300-year-old yew.

Since 2013 the women's Ashes has been decided on points across all three formats. A typical series is one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is, worth 16 points in all:

A Test win was originally worth six points; it is now four. As in the men's series, the holders keep the trophy if the points finish level. That happened in 2023, when the series in England ended 8-8 and Australia retained the Ashes even though England had won four of the seven matches to Australia's three.

For live scores when a series is on, see the Test cricket page and the women's cricket page.