The Oval defeat that gave birth to the Ashes
A single two-day Test at Kennington Oval in August 1882, Australia's first win on English soil, a collapse of seven runs short, and a mock obituary in a London newspaper produced the most famous rivalry in cricket.
A one-off that would matter
England had only ever lost one Test to Australia before 1882, and that had been played in Melbourne, a long sea voyage from home. When Billy Murdoch brought his Australians to Kennington Oval on 28 August for the single Test of the tour, most people in the crowd expected a home win inside two days. The pitch was damp and the sky was heavy with rain, conditions that history says favour bowlers who know how to use them, and both sides had bowlers of exactly that kind: England had Ted Peate and Dick Barlow, slow left-arm and medium pace, and Australia had Frederick Spofforth, a tall fast bowler from New South Wales already known to English crowds as "the Demon".
Murdoch won the toss and chose to bat, a decision that looked calamitous within the first hour and heroic by the finish. What followed over two days was one of the lowest-scoring, highest-tension matches English cricket had seen, four innings that together added up to only 363 runs, and a finish so close that spectators are said to have chewed their umbrella handles and dropped dead of the strain, according to newspaper accounts written in the days after.
Australia's fragile 63
Barlow and Peate shared the new ball and never let Australia settle. Hugh Massie was out for 1 in the fourth over, Billy Murdoch made 13 before he was bowled, and George Bonnor, a huge man expected to hit his way through any bowling, lasted six balls for a single run. Wickets fell to Barlow and Peate in a steady rhythm rather than a rush: Tom Horan, George Giffen and Harry Boyle were all bowled cheaply, and only Jack Blackham, the wicketkeeper, and Tom Garrett managed to build anything, adding 18 for the seventh wicket. Australia were all out for 63, Barlow finishing with 5 for 19 from 31 four-ball overs and Peate with 4 for 31. It was the kind of total that should have settled the match by lunch on the second day.
Spofforth finds his radar
England's reply never got away from Australia either. W.G. Grace, the most famous cricketer in England, made only 4 before he was bowled, and George Ulyett and Bunny Lucas added 39 for the third wicket, the only partnership of any substance. Spofforth, bowling into the same damp surface that had troubled Australia's own batters, found extra bounce and took 7 for 46 from more than 36 four-ball overs, supported by Harry Boyle's 2 for 24. England were dismissed for 101, a lead of 38, respectable on paper but not nearly the cushion a team wants after being asked to defend such a small total in the first innings.
Grace, Jones and a running feud
Australia's second innings started better. Hugh Massie, who had failed in the first innings, played the innings of his life, hitting 55 in well under an hour as he and Alec Bannerman put on 66 for the first wicket, by some distance the biggest stand of the match. It is here that cricket history places one of the most argued-over incidents of the entire series. Sammy Jones, having completed a run, stepped out of his crease to pat down a divot in the pitch, a routine act of pitch maintenance, and Grace, fielding nearby, broke the stumps and appealed. The umpire gave Jones run out. Jones's own scorecard entry shows the dismissal: run out for 6. Australia's players were furious, and Spofforth is said to have stormed into the England dressing room afterwards and told his teammates that the match could still be won, whatever it cost.
Wickets fell steadily after that, Peate finishing with 4 for 40 in the innings and Australia bowled out for 122. It left England needing only 85 runs to win the match and the series, a target that on the small scores already posted in the match looked routine rather than testing.
Eighty-five to win
England's dressing room believed the game was as good as won. W.G. Grace opened and made 32, the highest score of the innings, and with the score at 51 for 3 the target still seemed formality enough. Then Spofforth, given the ball at the other end, began to bowl the spell that decided the match and, in time, decided a great deal more than the match. Grace fell at 53, caught, and from there England's batting fell apart in a way that the scorecard still shows plainly: five wickets down for 66, then collapsing further as Spofforth and Harry Boyle shared the remaining wickets between them.
The Demon's spell
Spofforth finished the innings with 7 for 44, giving him 14 wickets in the match for 90 runs, and Boyle added 3 for 19. England, needing 85, were bowled out for 77. Australia had won by 7 runs. The scorecard shows the margin exactly: England's last pair, Charles Studd, who had made twin centuries earlier that summer and did not bat until number ten in this innings because of the pressure of the situation, was left not out at the non-striker's end as Ted Peate was bowled attempting the winning hit. It was Australia's first win on English soil and only the second Test Australia had ever won.
An obituary and an urn
Two days later a mock obituary appeared in The Sporting Times, mourning English cricket, stating the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The notice is widely credited to the newspaper's staff, most often named as Reginald Brooks. Within months an English side led by Ivo Bligh sailed for Australia declaring their aim to win back "the ashes", and on that tour Bligh was presented with a small terracotta urn, now kept at Lord's, that gave the rivalry its permanent name and its most enduring symbol.
The Oval scorecard, with every fall of wicket and partnership from that August afternoon, is on this page, and the two teams that built the story can be found on the Australia and England team pages. In The Follow-On you can pick either XI from that Oval afternoon and see whether you can chase down 85, or defend it the way Spofforth did.
Sources
- CricArcade Test archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
- ESPNcricinfo: Australia in England 1882, the Oval Test scorecard and report
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1883: the Australian tour of 1882