The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series. Captained by William Murdoch (1854-1911), the side was made up of seven players from NSW (Murdoch, Fred 'The Demon' Spofforth, Thomas Garrett, Samuel Jones, Hugh Massie, George Bonnor and Alick Bannerman); five from Victoria (Tom Horan, John Blackham, George Palmer, Henry Boyle and Percy Macdonnell); and one from South Australia (George Gitten). The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News declared at the start of the tour that 'we shall be slow to believe' the Australian side's ability to 'beat the best of our English elevens' but acknowledged that they 'proved themselves to be possessed of all of the qualifications necessary for success on the cricket-field'. The paper would no doubt have been as stunned as the rest of the cricket world when, several weeks later, the Australians defeated England in the ninth test match played between the two countries. It was the first time the English side had been beaten on home soil. Australia made only 63 runs in the first innings and 122 in the second, leaving England with a meagre run chase of 85 to win the match. Undaunted, the Australian fast bowler Spofforth declared that 'this thing can be done' and went on to bowl the English out just seven runs short of victory. A mock obituary later appeared in the Sporting Times lamenting the death of English cricket and stating that 'the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia'. When the English team toured Australia in 1882-1883, captain Ivo Bligh resolved to 'regain those ashes' and did so, winning the test series 2-1. A group of ladies, including Bligh's future wife, then presented the victorious English captain with a small urn reputedly containing the ashes of a stump or ball (or possibly a lady's veil). Now in the MCC Museum at Lord's, the urn and its disputed contents remain the so-called 'prize' in the biennial Test series still played between the two countries.
