The Ashes

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. 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". 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.

2009 Ashes series

The 2009 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia, and was part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played five Tests, with England winning the series 2–1. England thus reclaimed The Ashes from Australia, who had won the previous series in 2006–07.

The first Test was held at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, the first Test match ever to be held at the ground, and resulted in England saving a draw with one wicket to spare, and Ricky Ponting surpassing 11,000 Test runs, becoming Australia's leading Test run scorer as the series progressed. The second Test at Lord's was preceded by the announcement that Andrew Flintoff would be retiring from Test cricket at the end of the series. The England all-rounder then took his first Lord's five-for to seal a 115-run victory, England's first against Australia at the ground in 75 years. Rain prevented play for large amounts of the Third Test at Edgbaston, including the entire third day, making the draw an inevitable result. Australia pegged the score back to 1–1 with an innings victory at Headingley after bowling out England for 102, their lowest Ashes total since they were bowled out for 77 at Lord's in 1997. This left the Fifth Test at The Oval to decide the series.

The Ashes (rugby league)

The Ashes series, like the cricket series of the same name, was a best-of-three series of test matches between the British and Australian national rugby league football teams. It was contested 39 times from 1908 until 2003 largely with hosting rights alternating between the two countries. From 1973 Australia won thirteen consecutive Ashes series.

History

Several sports and events adopted cricket's Ashes "concept" and by the beginning of the 20th century it was an "accepted principle" that a series had to have at least three matches to be a true test of which side was the best.

On 27 September 1908, the first touring Australian rugby league side arrived in England, and played their first ever Test against the England side in December in London. Two further Tests were played. The Australians suggested that the series should be called "The Ashes" and the name stuck.

The format used is that three matches are played, with the winning team being decided on the basis of most matches won. If one team has already won two matches the series is already won, however the final game is usually still played. In the 1929–30 Ashes series both the teams won one game and one game was drawn; it was therefore decided to hold a further match to determine the outcome.

Ashes (2012 film)

Ashes is a 2012 British thriller film directed by Mat Whitecross.

Cast

References

External links

Ashes (Kyla La Grange album)

Ashes is Kyla La Grange's debut album. It was produced by Brett Shaw at 123 Studios in East London, with two tracks produced by Marky Bates and was released on 30 July 2012. All songs were written by La Grange, except "Love You Better" which is a cover of The Maccabbes song from the album Wall of Arms.

"Been Better" was released as the album's lead single on 10 July 2011 with "Courage" as its B-Side. "Heavy Stone" was released as the second single on 16 October 2011 with "Lambs" as its B-Side. "Vampire Smile" was released as the third single on 12 February 2012 with the non-album track "Cold Favours" as its B-Side. "Walk through Walls" was released as the fourth single on 20 July 2012 with her cover of "Love You Better" as its B-Side. "Been Better" was re-released on 11 November 2012 with "To Be Torn" and the non-album track "Erased" as its B-Sides. In addition to these singles, "I Could Be" was released as an iTunes Free Single of the Week in August 2012.

"Catalyst" was featured in the season 1 episode "Tough Love" of The CW network television series Beauty & the Beast.

Ashes (Embrace song)

"Ashes" is the second single from English rock band Embrace's fourth studio album, Out of Nothing. This release was publicised by a fan campaign called G.A.T.N.O (Get Ashes to Number One). The song reached number 11.

The B-side, "Flaming Red Hair", started life as a cover version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Another B-side, "How Come", was originally performed on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 show.

The songs "Maybe I Wish", "Flaming Red Hair", and a live version of "How Come" are featured on the B-sides compilation Dry Kids: B-Sides 1997-2005.

The song featured on the soundtrack of FIFA 06.

In the late summer of 2010, the track gained American notoriety through use in a commercial promoting the video game Madden NFL 11 that primarily aired on ESPN.

On 14 August 2014, Reading FC fans chose "Ashes" as their official club anthem.

The song was featured in the Veronica Mars episode "Normal Is the Watchword".

Track listings