The Begging of The Ashes
Australia in England 1882
The Test that Started the Ashes the begging of everything, the begging of the rivalry, the begging of the passion, the begging of legends and the begging of one of the greatest stories in sports. The Ashes begins now.
The Only Test of the tour was at the famous Oval. A low scoring match saw the Australians bat first. But it was more like Barlow and Peate of England bowling first ripping through the Aussies knocking them over for just 63 a terribly low score. Then the Demon, Spofforth made his test cricket return heard taking 7 wickets leaving England to just 101 runs due to recently demoted former skipper Ulyett’s 26. It was Australia’s turn to bat, poor performances with the bat continued except for the hero Hugh Massie, his 55 was the only hope for Australia giving them a lead of just 85 runs. Could the Aussies, do it? Can they make the upset? Can they beat England in England for the first ever time? Grace got of to a flyer scoring 32 but once W.G Grace got out it became the Fred Spofforth story. Theres a reason the English dubbed him as a demon. Hornby, Barlow, Ulyett, Lucas, Lyttlelton, Steel and Read all fell to the demon Spofforth had taken 14 wickets for the match. But was Grace’s efforts enough? England needed 85… they got… 77! Australia win by just 7 runs sending the English media into a frenzy. One English Media began the Ashes by saying:
Unbelievable game so many great performances from both sides but Spofforth reminded the world that he was the best bowler of the 19th century. Oh and the Ashes begun...
Alex’s Rating: 10/10
