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73-630: Albert Neilson Hornby , nicknamed Monkey Hornby (10 February 1847 – 17 December 1925) was one of the best-known sportsmen in England during the nineteenth century excelling in both rugby and cricket. He was the first of only two men to captain the country at both rugby and cricket but is also remembered as the England cricket captain whose side lost the Test match which gave rise to the Ashes , at home against

146-545: A three-quarter and despite being 30 years old, kept his place. He was present in the team in 1878 but due to his overseas international cricketing commitments in 1879 was unable to play rugby for his country that year. He was recalled to the side in 1880 as a full back and it was in this position that he was called upon to captain his country in 1882. The game was played in Manchester on 4 March 1882 against Scotland who won by 2 tries to nil. When, later that year, Hornby led

219-477: A "bad wicket", reaching his hundred before lunch on the first day. England won the last Test at The Oval by one wicket. Chasing 263 to win, they slumped to 48–5 before Gilbert Jessop 's 104 gave them a chance. He reached his hundred in just 75 minutes. The last-wicket pair of George Hirst and Rhodes were required to score 15 runs for victory. When Rhodes joined him, Hirst reportedly said: "We'll get them in singles, Wilfred." In fact, they scored thirteen singles and

292-404: A few subsequent matches. He later appeared for Nantwich where he also served as Club President. Newspaper correspondence in the 1950s suggests the 1877 formation of Crewe Alexandra Football Club as an offshoot of Crewe Alexandra Cricket Club was proposed by Hornby, who elicited the support of 'Thomas Abrams' (presumably Thomas Abraham) and other founders. In 1876 he married Ada Sarah Ingram,

365-429: A formidable bowling partnership. England retained the Ashes when it won the 1912 Triangular Tournament , which also featured South Africa . The Australian touring party had been severely weakened by a dispute between the board and players that caused Clem Hill , Victor Trumper , Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter , Sammy Carter and Vernon Ransford to be omitted. After the war, Australia took firm control of both

438-515: A minimum of 10 games. In 1970, the proposed South African tour of England was aborted. To replace the tour, a series of five games was played between a "Rest of the World" XI and the England Test team. At the time, these matches were thought of as Test matches. However, later they were stripped of Test status. England's captain in all five games was Ray Illingworth , who won one game, and lost

511-480: A private memento, and for this reason it is never awarded to either England or Australia, but is kept permanently in the MCC Cricket Museum where it can be seen together with the specially made red and gold velvet bag and the scorecard of the 1882 match. Because the urn itself is so delicate, it has been allowed to travel to Australia only twice. The first occasion was in 1988 for a museum tour as part of

584-759: A small urn and gave them to me as captain of the English Eleven. A more detailed account of how the Ashes were given to Ivo Bligh was outlined by his wife, the Countess of Darnley, in 1930 during a speech at a cricket luncheon. Her speech was reported by the Times as follows: In 1882, she said, it was first spoken of when the Sporting Times, after the Australians had thoroughly beaten the English at

657-405: 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

730-509: 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

803-492: A two. The period of Darling's captaincy saw the emergence of outstanding Australian players such as Trumper, Warwick Armstrong , James Kelly , Monty Noble , Clem Hill , Hugh Trumble and Ernie Jones . After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903–04. England won it against

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876-406: Is a list of cricketers who have captained the England men's team in at least one Test match . Where a player has a dagger (†) next to a Test match series in which he captained at least one Test, that denotes that player deputised for the appointed captain or was appointed for part of a series. The dagger classification follows that adopted by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack . The table of results

949-536: Is a list of cricketers who have captained the England women's cricket team for at least one Women's One Day International . The table of results is complete to the ODI series against India in July 2021. This is a list of cricketers who have captained the England women's team for at least one Women's Twenty20 International . The table of results is complete as of 14 July 2021. This is a list of cricketers who have captained

1022-507: Is about 6 inches (150 mm) tall and may originally have been a perfume jar. A label containing a six-line verse is pasted on the urn. This is the fourth verse of a song-lyric published in the Melbourne Punch on 1 February 1883: When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn; Studds , Steel , Read and Tylecote return, return; The welkin will ring loud, The great crowd will feel proud, Seeing Barlow and Bates with

1095-550: Is complete to the end of the 3rd Youth ODI against the West Indies in 2021. The Ashes The Ashes is a men's Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia . The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times , immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval , its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and

1168-759: Is complete up to the third Test against Sri Lanka in September 2024 . This is a complete list of every man who has captained England in at least one One Day International . The most successful captain in terms of win percentage, after a minimum of 10 games, is Mike Gatting. Eoin Morgan is the only captain to lead England to a trophy, taking England to victory in the 2019 Cricket World Cup . Thirteen men ( Alan Knott , Norman Gifford , Adam Hollioake , Graham Thorpe , Paul Collingwood , Eoin Morgan , Stuart Broad , James Taylor , Jos Buttler , Moeen Ali , Zak Crawley , Harry Brook , and Liam Livingstone ) have captained

1241-547: The 1903–04 tour of Australia and ending with the Centenary Test in 1977, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) organised international tours and selected the England team. On these tours, the team was called MCC in non-international matches and England in the internationals. MCC established a tradition of having amateur, rather than professional, captains. After Shrewsbury in 1886–87, there was no professional captain until Len Hutton in 1952. The amateur/professional distinction

1314-714: The Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 and to accompany the Ashes series in 2006–07 . Ashes series have usually consisted of five Tests, hosted in turn by England and Australia approximately every two years. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the series. If the series is drawn, the team that currently holds the Ashes "retains" the trophy. There have been 73 Ashes series . Australia have won 34 and retained six times from draws (40); England have won 32 and retained once (33). The first Test match between England and Australia

1387-583: The Australian Bicentenary celebrations; the second was for the 2006/7 Ashes series. The urn arrived on 17 October 2006, going on display at the Museum of Sydney . It then toured to other states, with the final appearance at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on 21 January 2007. In the 1990s, given Australia's long dominance of the Ashes and the popular acceptance of the Darnley urn as "the Ashes",

1460-726: The Australians in 1882. Additionally, he played football for Blackburn Rovers . He was the sixth son of William Henry Hornby , a cotton mill proprietor and director of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn from 1857 to 1865. His brothers, Edward and Harry , were also MPs for Blackburn from 1869 to 1874, and from 1886 to 1910 respectively. Edward and another brother Cecil also played first-class cricket. Albert attended Harrow School , for whom he played against Eton College at Lord's , and from there returned to Lancashire to join

1533-593: 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

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1606-435: The England under-19s for at least one under-19 Test match. The table of results is complete to 9 September 2021. Where a player has a dagger (†) next to a Test match series in which he captained at least one Test, that denotes that player was captain for a minor proportion in a series. This is a list of cricketers who have captained the England under-19 team for at least one Under-19 One Day International. The table of results

1679-567: The English cricket team lost it to Australia by seven runs. In response, the Sporting Times printed the following "obituary" to English cricket: In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th 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. Thus

1752-512: The 1880s and 1890s than people have grown accustomed to in more recent years, the first five-Test series taking place only in 1894–95. England lost only four Ashes Tests in the 1880s out of 23 played, and they won all the seven series contested. There was more chopping and changing in the teams, given that there was no official board of selectors for each country (in 1887–88, two separate English teams were on tour in Australia) and popularity with

1825-568: The 1934–35 tour of Australia and New Zealand when they were captained by Betty Archdale . Women's internationals were played sporadically until the last quarter of the 20th century when ODIs became frequent. The first ODI match was played in 1973 when England Women were led by Rachael Heyhoe-Flint . England Women's first T20I was played in 2004 under the captaincy of Clare Connor . The England under-19 cricket team began playing Test matches in 1974 and ODI matches in 1976. Their first captains were Nigel Briers and Chris Cowdrey respectively. This

1898-406: The 19th century, the captains for overseas tours were chosen by the promoters. The early tours were mostly organised by professionals, especially James Lillywhite , Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury . Some amateur-led tours went abroad under Lord Harris and Lord Hawke . Home captains were selected by the home ground authority, who often favoured a local player. For over 73 years, commencing with

1971-527: 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 Wisden' s first account of the legend is in the 1922 edition. It took many years before the contests between England and Australia were consistently called "The Ashes", and so there

2044-519: The Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. It won the first eight matches in succession including a 5–0 whitewash in 1920–1921 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team. The ruthless and belligerent Armstrong led his team back to England in 1921 where his men lost only two games late in

2117-599: The Ashes urn at the Morning Post Decorative Art Exhibition held in the Central Hall, Westminster. He made the following statement about how he was given the urn: When in the autumn the English Eleven went to Australia it was said that they had come to Australia to "fetch" the ashes. England won two out of the three matches played against Murdoch's Australian Eleven, and after the third match some Melbourne ladies put some ashes into

2190-522: The Ashes" 2–1. A fourth match was played, against a "United Australian XI", which was arguably stronger than the Australian sides that had competed in the previous three matches; this game, however, is not generally considered part of the 1882–83 series. It is counted as a Test, but as a standalone. This match ended in a victory for Australia. After Bligh's victory, there was an extended period of English dominance. The tours generally had fewer Tests in

2263-651: The England ODI side without ever captaining the Test team. The table of results is complete up to the third ODI against the West Indies in November 2024. England played their first Twenty20 International in June 2005. Eoin Morgan holds the record for the most games as captain of the England T20I team, with 72 which includes 42 victories. He is also the most successful captain in terms of win percentage, after

A. N. Hornby - Misplaced Pages Continue

2336-512: The England cricket team out at the Oval to play the Australians he became the first man to captain his country in both sports and this in his 36th year. He is one of only two men to have captained England at both these sports , the other being Andrew Stoddart . As well as becoming captain of the national side for both cricket and rugby, Hornby was also selected to play for Blackburn Rovers in their inaugural game at Alexandra Meadows, against Partick Thistle on 2 January 1878. He played for them in

2409-424: 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 on home soil. When it finally sank in,

2482-426: The English so lavishly, found a little wooden urn, burnt a bail, put the ashes in the urn, and wrapping it in a red velvet bag, put it into her husband's (Ivo Bligh's) hands. He had always regarded it as a great treasure. There is another statement which is not totally clear made by Lord Darnley in 1921 about the timing of the presentation of the urn. He was interviewed in his home at Cobham Hall by Montague Grover and

2555-471: The Englishmen in 1882. Though the team did not win, the urn containing the ashes was sent to him just before leaving Melbourne. The contents of the urn are also problematic; they were variously reported to be the remains of a stump, bail or the outer casing of a ball, but in 1998 Darnley's 82-year-old daughter-in-law said they were the remains of her mother-in-law's veil, casting a further layer of doubt on

2628-584: The First World War, was awarded the Military Cross , and later died when exploring in the north of Canada. The eldest son, Albert Henry (1877–1952) went on to Trinity College, Cambridge and like his father played and captained Lancashire. Between 1899 and 1914 he played 283 matches – only nine matches fewer than his father. Hornby was also a Captain of 1st Royal Cheshire Militia. He died at Parkfield, Nantwich, Cheshire on 17 December 1925, and

2701-452: The Oval on 29th 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 the 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

2774-404: The Oval, wrote an obituary in affectionate memory of English cricket "whose demise was deeply lamented and the body would be cremated and taken to Australia". Her husband, then Ivo Bligh, took a team to Australia in the following year. Punch had a poem containing the words "When Ivo comes back with the urn" and when Ivo Bligh wiped out the defeat Lady Clarke, wife of Sir W. J. Clarke, who entertained

2847-520: 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 won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to Bligh in Melbourne . The contents of

2920-425: The captaincy of W. G. Grace won the series 2–1, and this marked the end of England's longest period of Ashes dominance. Australia resoundingly won the 1897–98 series by 4–1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott . His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901–02, and the classic 1902 series , which became one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket. Five matches were played in 1902 but

2993-465: The careful defence of his opening partner, Dick Barlow , with whom he was immortalised in one of the best known of all cricket poems , At Lord's by Francis Thompson which contains the following lines:    It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,       Though my own red roses there may blow;    It is little I repair to

A. N. Hornby - Misplaced Pages Continue

3066-548: The close of the second last day's play, Australia were 113–2, needing only 64 more runs. But heavy rain fell overnight and next morning the two slow left-arm bowlers, Peel and Johnny Briggs , were all but unplayable. England went on to win the series 3–2 after it had been all square before the Final Test, which England won by 6 wickets. The English heroes were Peel, with 27 wickets in the series at an average of 26.70, and Tom Richardson , with 32 at 26.53. In 1896, England under

3139-522: 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 batsmen 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

3212-640: The daughter of Herbert Ingram MP, the founder and proprietor of The Illustrated London News . With Ada he lived in Church Minshull , Nantwich and they had four sons all of whom went to Harrow. George Vernon (1879–1905) died in South Africa, having served in the Boer War whilst Walter Ingram (1878–1918) died of wounds received in France. The youngest, John , (1880–1927) was also wounded during

3285-700: The family business. Whilst at Harrow, his family had moved to Shrewbridge Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire, and he first played cricket for that county in 1862 and played in 20 matches between then and 1876. His club cricket was for the East Lancashire Club, Blackburn and he was first tried for Lancashire County Cricket Club in 1867. It was with his county that he was to play his finest cricket. From 1869 to 1899 he played 683 innings in first-class cricket with an average of over 24 runs. He played for Lancashire for 33 years, 17 as captain (in 1879–1893 and 1897–1898). For many years he provided an ideal attacking foil to

3358-536: The famous Australian victory at The Oval, Bligh led an England team to Australia, as he said, to "recover those ashes". Publicity surrounding the series was intense, and it was at some time during this series that the Ashes urn was crafted. Australia won the First Test by nine wickets , but in the next two England were victorious. At the end of the Third Test, England were generally considered to have "won back

3431-596: The fans varied. The 1890s games were more closely fought, Australia taking its first series win since 1882 with a 2–1 victory in 1891–92. But England dominated, winning the next three series to 1896 despite continuing player disputes. The 1894–95 series began in sensational fashion when England won the First Test at Sydney by just 10 runs having followed on. Australia had scored a massive 586 ( Syd Gregory 201, George Giffen 161) and then dismissed England for 325. But England responded with 437 and then dramatically dismissed Australia for 166 with Bobby Peel taking 6 for 67. At

3504-466: The first two were drawn after being hit by bad weather. In the First Test (the first played at Edgbaston ), after scoring 376 England bowled out Australia for 36 ( Wilfred Rhodes 7/17) and reduced them to 46–2 when they followed on. Australia won the Third and Fourth Tests at Bramall Lane and Old Trafford respectively. At Old Trafford, Australia won by just 3 runs after Victor Trumper had scored 104 on

3577-525: The formation of cricket leagues as being against the best interests of the game. Hornby first played for the Preston Grasshoppers and thence on to Manchester Football Club . His first game for England was on 5 February 1877 under the captaincy of Edward Kewley , a fellow Lancastrian. This match was the first 15-a-side international and was between England and Ireland at the Oval . He played as

3650-552: The idea was mooted that the victorious team should be awarded the urn as a trophy and allowed to retain it until the next series. As its condition is fragile and it is a prized exhibit at the MCC Cricket Museum, the MCC would not agree. Furthermore, in 2002, Bligh's great-great-grandson Lord Clifton, the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Darnley , argued that the Ashes urn should not be returned to Australia because it belonged to his family and

3723-621: The matches of the Southron folk,       Though the red roses crest the caps, I know.    For the field is full of shades as I near a shadowy coast,    And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,    And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host       As the run stealers flicker to and fro,          To and fro:       O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago! His lack of stature and excess of energy earned him

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3796-419: The matter. However, during the tour of Australia in 2006/7, the MCC official accompanying the urn said the veil legend had been discounted, and it was now "95% certain" that the urn contains the ashes of a cricket bail. Speaking on Channel Nine TV on 25 November 2006, he said x-rays of the urn had shown the pedestal and handles were cracked, and repair work had to be carried out. The urn is made of terracotta and

3869-444: The nickname "Monkey" whilst at school and this stuck, while his players called him "The Boss", for his martinet approach to captaincy. His prowess as a forceful front-foot player, was matched by his fielding abilities. Between 1870 and 1881 he was the only player for Lancashire to reach a century for the club, which he did on seven occasions and in 1881 he topped the national averages, with his 1531 runs including three centuries. Hornby

3942-540: The odds, and Plum Warner , the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book How We Recovered The Ashes . The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as "The Ashes". England and Australia were evenly matched until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Five more series took place between 1905 and 1912. In 1905, England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won

4015-471: The one to enjoy enduring fame, was the one presented to Bligh, later Lord Darnley, during the 1882–83 tour. The precise nature of the origin of this urn is a matter of dispute. Based on a statement by Darnley in 1894, it was believed that a group of Victorian ladies, including Darnley's later wife Florence Morphy , made the presentation after the victory in the Third Test in 1883. More recent researchers, in particular Ronald Willis and Joy Munns have studied

4088-461: The other four. This is a list of cricketers who have captained the England women's cricket team for at least one women's Test match . The table of results is complete to the away Test against India in December 2023. Where a player has a dagger (†) next to a Test match series in which she captained at least one Test, that denotes that player was captain for a minor proportion in a series. This

4161-532: The report of this interview was as follows: This urn was presented to Lord Darnley by some ladies of Melbourne after the final defeat of his team, and before he returned with the members to England. He made a similar statement in 1926. The report of this statement in the Brisbane Courier was as follows: The proudest possession of Lord Darnley is an earthenware urn containing the ashes which were presented to him by Melbourne residents when he captained

4234-402: The same test match he also became the first player to be stumped in both innings of a single test match. In addition to his county and country, he also played first-class cricket for Marylebone Cricket Club between 1873 and 1898. Aside from his playing for Lancashire, Hornby also held the posts of Lancashire chairman from 1878 to 1898, and Lancashire president from 1894 to 1916. He denounced

4307-416: The series 2–0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907–08 and 1909. Then England won in 1911–12 by four matches to one. Jack Hobbs establishing himself as England's first-choice opening batsman with three centuries, while Frank Foster (32 wickets at 21.62) and Sydney Barnes (34 wickets at 22.88) formed

4380-427: The term as if it were well known. 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

4453-462: The tour in detail and concluded that the presentation was made after a private cricket match played over Christmas 1882 when the English team were guests of Sir William Clarke , at his property " Rupertswood ", in Sunbury, Victoria . This was before the matches had started. The prime evidence for this theory was provided by a descendant of Clarke. In August 1926 Ivo Bligh (now Lord Darnley) displayed

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4526-418: 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 Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) by Bligh's widow after his death in 1927. The Ashes urn has never been the official trophy of the series, having been a personal gift to Bligh, but replicas of

4599-540: The urn have often been held aloft by the winning team as a symbol of their victory. Since the 1998–99 Ashes series , the Ashes Trophy, a Waterford Crystal trophy modelled on the Ashes urn, has been presented to the winners of the series. Irrespective of which side holds the trophy, the original urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's . It has been taken to Australia twice to be put on touring display, as part of

4672-538: The urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club and that was the key event in establishing the urn as the physical embodiment of the legendary ashes. MCC first displayed the urn in the Long Room at Lord's and since 1953 in the MCC Cricket Museum at the ground. MCC's wish for it to be seen by as wide a range of cricket enthusiasts as possible has led to its being mistaken for an official trophy. It is in fact

4745-584: The urn, the urn; And the rest coming home with the urn. In February 1883, just before the disputed Fourth Test, a velvet bag made by Mrs Ann Fletcher, the daughter of Joseph Hines Clarke and Marion Wright, both of Dublin , was given to Bligh to contain the urn. During Darnley's lifetime there was little public knowledge of the urn, and no record of a published photograph exists before 1921. The Illustrated London News published this photo in January 1921 (shown above). When Darnley died in 1927 his widow presented

4818-482: Was abolished in 1962, though some former amateurs captained England after that. In 1971, Ray Illingworth captained England in their first ODI. In 1977, management of the England team was taken over by the former Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) until 1 January 1997, and from then by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). England played their first T20I in 2005 under the captaincy of Michael Vaughan . The England Women's team made their international debut on

4891-406: Was born the greatest rivalry in cricket which to this day is known as The Ashes . AN Hornby captained England in only one more Test (his last), standing in for Lord Harris (who had stood out in protest) in the first Test of 1884. The match was played at Old Trafford on 10, 11 and 12 July 1884 and was drawn. Hornby avoided Spofforth but his 0 and 4 in the two innings remained undistinguished and in

4964-472: Was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in nearby Acton . Hornby is one of the main characters in the Netflix mini-series " The English Game " (2020), played by Harry Michell . England cricket captains International cricket began in 1877 when the England men's team played in the first-ever Test match. England have played more Test matches, and had more captains, than any other team. In

5037-483: Was given to the MCC only for safe keeping. As a compromise, the MCC commissioned a larger replica of the urn in Waterford Crystal , known as the Ashes Trophy, to award to the winning team of each series starting with the 1998–99 Ashes . This did little to diminish the status of the Darnley urn as the most important icon in cricket, the symbol of this old and keenly fought contest. Later in 1882, following

5110-695: Was no concept of either a trophy or a physical representation of the ashes. As late as 1925, the following verse appeared in The Cricketers Annual : So here's to Chapman, Hendren and Hobbs, Gilligan, Woolley and Hearne May they bring back to the Motherland, The ashes which have no urn! Nevertheless, several attempts had been made to embody the Ashes in a physical memorial. Examples include one presented to Warner in 1904, another to Australian captain M. A. Noble in 1909, and another to Australian captain W. M. Woodfull in 1934. The oldest, and

5183-511: 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 . Australia made a mere 63 runs in their first innings , and England, led by A. N. Hornby , took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, Australia, boosted by

5256-486: Was unable to carry his county form with the bat into the Test arena, his 3.50 average being a testament to this fact. In his debut Test on the 1878–79 Australian tour (during this tour, Hornby was caught up in the Sydney Riot of 1879 ) he lost his wicket in both innings to Spofforth ; this was to be repeated in his next Test in 1882. The Test match in 1882 was a one-off game played at The Oval in London, England, and

5329-572: 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: Well done, Cornstalks ! Whipt us Fair and square, Was it luck that tript us? Was it scare? Kangaroo Land's 'Demon', or our own Want of 'devil', coolness, nerve, backbone? On 31 August, in

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