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The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the Test series. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, their first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour ''the quest to regain the Ashes''. After England had won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women including Florence Morphy, whom Bligh married within a year.〔(Summary of Events ) ''The Illustrated Australian News'', 20 February 1884, (foot of column 2) at Trove〕 The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden bail, and were humorously described as "the ashes of Australian cricket".〔(Cricket ) ''Hobart Mercury'', 4 June 1908, p.8, at Trove〕 It is not clear whether that "tiny silver urn" is the same as the small terracotta urn given to the MCC by Bligh's widow after his death in 1927. The urn has never been the official trophy of the Ashes series, having been a personal gift to Bligh.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.lords.org/history/mcc-history/the-ashes )〕 However, replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series. Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn (called the Ashes Trophy) has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the official trophy of that series. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's; it has however been taken to Australia to be put on touring display on two occasions: as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988, and to accompany the Ashes series in 2006–07. An Ashes series is traditionally of five Tests, hosted in turn by England and Australia at least once every four years. , England hold the ashes, having won three of the five Tests in the 2015 Ashes series. Overall, Australia has won 32 series, England 32 and five series have been drawn. ==1882 origins== (詳細はTest match between England and Australia was played in Melbourne, Australia, in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their tour of England that year the Australians played just one Test, at the Oval in London. It was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket.〔Fred Spofforth, however, contended that, the fourth innings aside, it played perfectly well.〕 Australia made a mere 63 runs in its first innings, and England, led by A. N. Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, the Australians, boosted by a spectacular 55 runs off 60 deliveries from Hugh Massie, managed 122, which left England only 85 runs to win. The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Fred Spofforth, spurred on by the gamesmanship of his opponents, in particular W. G. Grace, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just eight runs short of victory. When Ted Peate, England's last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, but Peate managed only two before he was bowled by Harry Boyle. An astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost to a colony on home soil. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle and Spofforth to the pavilion. When Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd (one of the best batsman in England, having already hit two centuries that season against the colonists), to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."〔 〕 The momentous defeat was widely recorded in the British press, which praised the Australians for their plentiful "pluck" and berated the Englishmen for their lack thereof. A celebrated poem appeared in ''Punch'' on Saturday, 9 September. The first verse, quoted most frequently, reads:
On 31 August, in the Charles Alcock-edited magazine ''Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game'', there appeared a mock obituary: :''SACRED TO THE MEMORY'' :''OF'' :''ENGLAND'S SUPREMACY IN THE'' :''CRICKET-FIELD'' :''WHICH EXPIRED'' :''ON THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, AT THE OVAL'' :''"ITS END WAS PEATE"'' On 2 September a more celebrated mock obituary, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks, appeared in ''The Sporting Times''. It read: :''In Affectionate Remembrance'' :''of'' :''ENGLISH CRICKET,'' :''which died at the Oval'' :''on'' :''29 August 1882,'' :''Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing'' :''friends and acquaintances'' :''R.I.P.'' :''N.B.—The body will be cremated and the'' :''ashes taken to Australia.'' Ivo Bligh promised that on 1882–83 tour of Australia, he would, as England's captain, "recover those Ashes". He spoke of them several times over the course of the tour, and the Australian media quickly caught on. The three-match series resulted in a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute. In the 20 years following Bligh's campaign the term "the Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series, at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs (''With Bat and Ball'', 1899), used the term as if it were well known.〔Gibson, A., ''Cricket Captains of England'', p. 26.〕 The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when Pelham Warner took a team to Australia with the promise that he would regain "the ashes". As had been the case on Bligh's tour 20 years before, the Australian media latched fervently onto the term and, this time, it stuck. Having fulfilled his promise, Warner published a book entitled ''How We Recovered the Ashes''. Although the origins of the term are not referred to in the text, the title served (along with the general hype created in Australia) to revive public interest in the legend. The first mention of "the Ashes" in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack occurs in 1905, while ''Wisdens first account of the legend is in the 1922 edition. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Ashes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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