English cricket team in Australia in 1882-83

The England national cricket team toured Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

and Ceylon in 1882-83.

The team, captained by Ivo Bligh, was on a quest "to recover those Ashes", a reference to the famous RIP notice that was published in the aftermath of England's defeat by Australia at The Oval

The Oval

The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

during the previous English season

1882 English cricket season

-Champion County:* Lancashire, Nottinghamshire -Events:8 April . Formation of Warwickshire CCC at a meeting in Coventry.10 May. Formation of Durham CCC....

.

Originally, three Tests

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

were arranged and England won two of these after losing the first. Although the actual sequence of events has never been completely confirmed, it was after England won the third Test that Ivo Bligh was somehow presented with a small urn which is believed to contain the ashes of a burnt bail. He brought this back to England and it is now the most famous exhibit in the museum at Lord's Cricket Ground

Lord's Cricket Ground

Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...

. England and Australia have been contesting these mythical Ashes

The Ashes

The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...

ever since.

The "fourth Test" of this tour was arranged ad hoc after the original series had been completed.

First Test

Second Test

Third Test

"Extra" Test

Players

England was captained by Ivo Bligh and had Edward Tylecote

Edward Tylecote

Edward Ferdinando Sutton Tylecote - cricketer....

as its specialist wicket-keeper, the other players being Billy Bates

Billy Bates

Willie Bates, known as Billy was an English all-round cricketer. Excellent with both bat and ball, Bates scored over 10,000 first-class runs, took more than 870 wickets and was always reliable in the field...

, Dick Barlow

Dick Barlow

Richard Gorton Barlow was a cricketer who played for Lancashire and England...

, Allan Steel, Charles Leslie

Charles Leslie (cricketer)

Charles Frederick Henry Leslie was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for eight years between 1881 and 1888...

, Walter Read

Walter Read

Walter William Read was an English cricketer, who was a fluent right hand bat. An occasional bowler of lobs, he sometimes switched to quick overarm deliveries. He captained England in two Test matches, winning them both...

, Charles Studd

Charles Studd

Charles Thomas Studd, often known as C. T. Studd, was born 2 December 1860, Spratton, Northamptonshire, England, and died 16 July 1931, Ibambi, Belgian Congo....

, Fred Morley

Fred Morley

Frederick Morley was a professional cricketer who was reckoned to be the fastest bowler in England during his prime...

, Billy Barnes

Billy Barnes

William Barnes was a professional cricketer who played for Nottinghamshire between 1875 and 1894 and England between 1880 and 1890. In 1890 he was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Barnes also toured Australia three times and North America once...

, George Vernon

George Vernon

George Frederick Vernon was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He also played one Test match for England during the first-ever Ashes tour in 1882-83.Vernon was the son of George Vernon of 32 Montague Square...

and George Studd

George Studd

George Brown Studd - cricketer and missionary.Studd was the second eldest of the famous Studd brothers, who dominated English cricket in the late 19th century...

.

Australia was captained by Billy Murdoch

Billy Murdoch

William Lloyd Murdoch was an Australian cricketer, who captained the Australian team on tours to England in 1880, 1882 , 1884 and 1890...

and had Jack Blackham

Jack Blackham

John McCarthy Blackham was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia.A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the famous Ashes Test match of 1882...

as wicket-keeper. Other players to represent Australia were Billy Midwinter

Billy Midwinter

William Evans Midwinter was a cricketer who played four Test matches for England, sandwiched in between eight Tests that he played for Australia...

, Alec Bannerman, George Bonnor

George Bonnor

George John Bonnor was an Australian cricketer, known for his big hitting, who played between 1880 and 1888.-Career:...

, Tom Horan

Tom Horan

Thomas Patrick Horan was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia, and later became an esteemed cricket journalist under the pen name "Felix". The first of only two Irish-born players to play Test cricket for Australia, Horan was the leading batsman in the colony of Victoria...

, Percy McDonnell

Percy McDonnell

Percy Stanislaus McDonnell was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian Test team in six matches, including the tour of England in 1888....

, George Giffen

George Giffen

George Giffen was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series and was the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and...

, Harry Boyle

Harry Boyle

Henry Frederick Boyle was a leading Australian Test cricketer of the late 1870s and early 1880s....

, Edwin Evans

Edwin Evans

Edwin Evans was an Australian cricketer who played in six Tests between 1881 and 1886.Born in Emu Plains, New South Wales and educated at Newington College , Evans was an off spinner with an ability to consistently land the ball wherever he wanted to and had some success in Australian first-class...

, Hugh Massie

Hugh Massie

Hugh Hamon Massie was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia.Massie's role in the 1882 Ashes Test at The Oval was almost as pivotal in deciding the result as Fred Spofforth's celebrated performance with the ball...

, Eugene Palmer

Eugene Palmer

Eugene Palmer is a Jamaican born British artist. His work uses archival records, photographs, and contemporary media imagery as basis for his paintings. Palmer has had a long association with art curators and exhibitors Eddie Chambers and Keith Piper and is recognised as one of the leading Black...

, Tom Garrett

Tom Garrett

Thomas William Garrett was an early Australian Test cricketer and, later, a distinguished public servant.-Early life:...

and the "Demon Bowler" himself, the man who primarily embodied the Ashes ideal, Fred Spofforth

Fred Spofforth

Frederick Robert "Fred" Spofforth , also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century and was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the first to take a test hat-trick in 1879...

Ceylon

The team used Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

as a stopover during its long sea voyage and played against local sides that were not first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

. This was the first time that an English cricket team had visited Ceylon.

External sources

CricketArchive tour itinerary