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The Ashes Trivia.

• The first Test match between England and Australia was played in Melbourne, Australia, in 1877, though the Ashes legend did not start until later, after the ninth Test played in 1882.
• The Ashes legend was born in 1882, when the English cricket team was beaten by Australia for the first time on its own soil. Two days later, a mock obituary in the Sporting Times declared the death of English Cricket.
• During the 1882-83 cricket tour, a small terracotta urn was presented to the English Captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women including Florence Morphy, who Bligh married after a year.
• Following the 1882-83 cricket tour, the urn disappeared for many years, reappearing in 1927 when it was presented to the Marylebone Cricket Club, where it has been held ever since.
• The original urn remains in the MCC Museum but was taken to Australia to be put on display during two occasions – Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1998 and to The Ashes in 2006-2007.
• In the early days, the number of Test matches that made up a Ashes series varied. In 1888, there was only one match played. Since 1897, Ashes series have generally been played over five Test matches, although there have been four-match series (1938 and 1975) and six-match series (1970–71, 1974–75, 1978–79, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993 and 1997).
• For the 1970–71 Ashes series, the two sides ended up playing seven Tests. Six Test matches were originally scheduled, but an extra Test was added to compensate for the abandoned third Test.
• Don Bradman scored 19 centuries in Ashes Tests, the most of any player.
• A women's Ashes Test series between England and Australia was first played in 1934–35.
• Eight hat-tricks have been recorded by bowlers in Ashes matches. The first was by Englishman Billy Bates in the 2nd Test of 1882-83 Ashes in Melbourne, he finished with a match haul of 14 for 102, including a hat-trick in the first innings.
• The most runs in a single Ashes series is by Don Bradman. He scored 974 runs at an average of 139.14 in the 1930 series.
• A cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Don Bradman, was dubbed Bodyline.
• Shane Warne holds the record for most wickets taken in Ashes history with 195.
• The 2005 Ashes series in England saw the inauguration of the Compton–Miller Medal for the Ashes Man of the Series award.
• During a Ashes tour in 1991, English players David Gower and John Morris left the cricket ground during a tour match against Queensland, hopped on a Tiger Moth at the nearby airfield, persuading the pilot to fly low over the field.
• Shane Warne's first delivery in Ashes cricket, in which he bamboozled and bowled Mike Gatting, became known as the 'Ball of the Century'.

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