Trading card depicting a coloured illustration of the Ashes Urn in front of Lord's Cricket Ground in circle frame superimposed over Sydney Cricket Ground in background. The first stanza of the poem on the Ashes Urn is printed underneath. Series No.13.
Ashes story on reverse reads: The Ashes
The Ashes were created as a result of the Oval Test Match in August 1882. After being dismissed for 63 runs in their first innings, the Australians fought back to win the match by 7 runs in 2 days. This was England's first home defeat by Australia and it prompted a young London journalist - Reginald Shirley Brooks - to write the following obituary in the Sporting Times. "In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamanted 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." Whilst the origins of the Ashes themselves are uncertain, they are probably the remains of a ball placed in the famous Urn and presented to the English captain - Hon. Ivo Bligh - before the Australian 1883 series. After Bligh's death in 1927, his widow presented the Urn to the M.C.C. It is now kept in the Cricket Museum at Lords together with the score card of the 1882 match."
