Editing The Ashes (section)

==1882 origins==
{{main|Australian cricket team in England in 1882}}
[[File:Ranji 1897 page 143 F. R. Spofforth, the demon bowler.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Fred Spofforth]], "The Demon Bowler", was instrumental in Australia's 1882 victory over England with 14 wickets for 90.]]
The first [[Test cricket|Test match]] between England and Australia was played in [[Melbourne]], Australia, [[English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1876–77|in 1877]], though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their [[Australian cricket team in England and the United States in 1882|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 [[Cricket pitch|wicket]].<ref>Fred Spofforth, however, contended that, the fourth innings aside, it played perfectly well.</ref> 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 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 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 (cricketer)|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, 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."<ref>
{{cite news
|first=Jack
|last=Worrall
|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83580262
|title=A Great Bowlers' Victory
|page=11 
|newspaper=[[Daily News (Perth, Western Australia)|Daily News]] 
|location=Perth, WA |date=23 August 1930 
|access-date=25 August 2013
}}
</ref>

The momentous defeat 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 (magazine)|Punch]]'' on Saturday, 9 September. The first verse, quoted most frequently, reads:

<blockquote>
<poem>
Well done, [[wikt:cornstalk|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?
</poem></blockquote>

On 31 August, in the [[C. W. Alcock|Charles Alcock]]-edited magazine ''Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game'', there appeared a mock obituary:

{{poemquote|
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"
}}

[[File:DeathofEnglishCricket.jpg|thumb|The death notice that appeared in ''[[The Sporting Times]]'']]
On 2 September a more celebrated mock obituary, written by [[Reginald Shirley Brooks]], appeared in ''[[The Sporting Times]]''. It read:

{{poemquote|
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.
}}

[[File:SCG 1883 01-3 SLNSW FL1616387.jpg|thumb|England v. Australia Cricket Match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, 27 January 1883]]
[[Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley|Ivo Bligh]] promised that on the [[English cricket team in Australia in 1882–83|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 a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hilton |first=Christopher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/123232899 |title=The birth of the Ashes : the amazing story of the first Ashes test |date=2006 |publisher=Renniks Publications |isbn=978-0-9752245-4-0 |location=Banksmeadow, N.S.W. |oclc=123232899}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/930079935 |title=Wisden on the Ashes : the authoritative story of cricket's greatest rivalry : updated to include the 2015 series |date=2015 |editor-first=Steven |editor-last=Lynch |isbn=978-1-4729-1353-1 |edition= |location=London |oclc=930079935}}</ref>

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 the term as if it were well known.<ref>Gibson, A., ''Cricket Captains of England'', p. 26.</ref>

The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when [[Plum Warner|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 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.