The first Test, and how the Ashes began.

Before Tests

The Melbourne Cricket Ground's own timeline dates the first match on the present ground to 30 September 1854, the first intercolonial match there (Victoria against New South Wales) to 26 and 27 March 1856, and the first international match in Australia to 1 to 4 January 1862, when eighteen players of Victoria met H.H. Stephenson's All England XI. The ICC dates the first tour of Australia by an English team to 1862. The MCG timeline also records that an Aboriginal team led by Tom Wills played the Melbourne Cricket Club on 26 and 27 December 1866.

Melbourne, March 1877

The MCG timeline gives 15 to 19 March 1877 for the Australia against England match regarded as the first Test. Cricket Australia's history page says play began on 15 March, with Dave Gregory captaining Australia against James Lillywhite's professional England side. Australia won by 45 runs. Charles Bannerman scored the first Test century and retired hurt on 165.

Test status came later. The ICC says the English touring team played two matches against full Australian sides in 1877 that are "now regarded" as the first Tests; the label was applied afterwards. Wikipedia, seen only as a search summary, adds that the first match had no time limit, with a rest day on 18 March, used four-ball overs, and that neither side was at full strength (England without leading amateurs such as W.G. Grace, Australia without Fred Spofforth). We could not confirm those details.

The ICC says Australia first toured England in 1878. The MCG timeline credits Spofforth with the first Test hat-trick, in the match of 2 to 4 January 1879. A hundred years on, the Centenary Test at the MCG, 12 to 17 March 1977, ended in an Australian win by 45 runs, the same result and margin as in 1877, as both the MCG and Cricket Australia note.

On 11 March 2025 the ICC announced a one-off day-night Test with a pink ball between Australia and England at the MCG, 11 to 15 March 2027, to mark 150 years of Test cricket. On 22 October 2026 it has not yet been played.

The Oval, 29 August 1882

The MCC says England lost to Australia at The Oval on 29 August 1882, their first home defeat by Australia. Set 85 to win, England were bowled out for 77, largely because of Spofforth. The Sporting Times then printed a mock obituary of English cricket ending with the line that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The historian Martin Williamson, writing for ESPN in 2006, names its author as Reginald Shirley Brooks, a young London journalist.

When did the obituary appear? The MCC's two pages disagree. Its Ashes history page says a day later; its Father Time Wall entry for 1928 says three days later. Neither gives a calendar date.

Ivo Bligh's tour and the urn

A few weeks after The Oval, an England team led by the Hon. Ivo Bligh, later Lord Darnley, toured Australia. The MCC says Bligh vowed to bring back "the ashes" and Australia's captain, W.L. Murdoch, vowed to defend them. England won the three-match series 2-1; a fourth match was then arranged, which Australia won.

When was the urn given?

• The MCC's account. On Christmas Eve 1882, after a social match at Rupertswood, Sir William Clarke's estate near Sunbury outside Melbourne, Bligh was given a small terracotta urn as a symbol of the ashes. The MCC's Father Time Wall says Lady Janet Clarke decided Bligh deserved the Ashes.
• The older version. Based on a statement Bligh made in 1894, a group of Victorian ladies presented the urn after the third Test in 1883. Williamson writes that it was long believed Melbourne women had presented it.
• The researchers' view. According to Wikipedia, the researchers Ronald Willis and Joy Munns concluded the presentation was at Christmas 1882.

The MCC adds that after the third Test, Mrs Anne Fletcher gave Bligh a red velvet bag for the urn, with a poem from Melbourne Punch attached.

What is inside it?

• A burned bail, according to the MCC's Father Time Wall.
• A veil. Williamson records that in 1998 Lord Darnley's 82-year-old daughter-in-law said the urn held the remains of her mother-in-law's veil.
• A ball. Williamson notes it was long thought to be a bail from the third match, and that other evidence points to a ball.

The MCC describes the urn as 10.5 cm tall and 124.8 g in weight, and says its origin is unknown: it may have been a perfume bottle or a cosmetic jar from Lady Clarke's dressing table.

From a keepsake to Lord's

Bligh met Florence Rose Morphy, the Clarke family's governess and Lady Clarke's companion, at Rupertswood, and married her in February 1884. The MCC says Bligh treated the urn as a personal gift; it stood on the mantelpiece at Cobham Hall, near Rochester in Kent, until his death. The phrase "the Ashes" was largely forgotten for about twenty years, until Pelham Warner revived it after his winning tour of 1903-04.

The urn was first shown in public in 1926. Bligh died in 1927, and Florence gave the urn to the MCC; the MCC files the gift under 1928.

Not a trophy

The MCC says it regards the urn as a personal memento of Lord and Lady Darnley, and that it is not, and never has been, a trophy. In the 1990s, after talks with the ECB and Cricket Australia, the MCC commissioned an urn-shaped Waterford Crystal trophy. It was first presented to Mark Taylor after Australia won the 1998-99 series and has gone to the winning captain of each Australia against England Test series since.

The urn itself has travelled: the MCC says it was shown at seven museums in six Australian states from October 2006 to January 2007, and at the State Library of Victoria in 2019-20.

The Ashes since

The MCC records that the women's Ashes became multi-format in 2013. In the men's series, the 2023 Ashes in England were drawn 2-2, cricket.com.au reports, so Australia, as holders, retained the Ashes; in 2025-26 Australia won 4-1 at home, as the ICC reported. Results, series by series, are on the Ashes, and the Bodyline series of 1932-33 has its own page, Bodyline.