# English cricket team in Australia in 1882–83

An English cricket team toured Australia and Ceylon in 1882–83. Captained by Ivo Bligh, the team was on a quest "to recover those Ashes", a reference to the famous RIP notice that was published in the aftermath of England's defeat by Australia at The Oval in the previous English season.
Originally, three matches were arranged between Bligh's XI and a Combined Australia XI. Bligh's XI won two of these after losing the first. Although the actual sequence of events has never been completely confirmed, it was after winning the third match that Bligh was somehow presented with a small urn which is believed to contain the ashes of a burnt bail. He brought this back to England and it is now the most famous exhibit in the museum at Lord's Cricket Ground. England and Australia have been contesting these mythical Ashes ever since. A. fourth match was arranged ad hoc after the original series had been completed, and was won by the Australians. Following publication of Clarence P. Moody's proposed Test cricket list in 1894, all four matches were retrospectively recognised as Test matches.

## Test matches

These matches were not called Tests at the time but they were retrospectively recognised after they were included in Australian Cricket and Cricketers, 1856 to 1893–94 (1894) by Clarence P. Moody. The original title of each match was Combined Australia XI v I. F. W. Bligh's XI.

### First Test

* 30 December 1882 – 2 January 1883 (Timeless Test) Scorecard
* Australia won by 9 wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: E. H. Elliott (Aus) and J. S. Swift (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
* 31 December 1882 was taken as a rest day.
* Hon. I. F. W. Bligh, C. F. H. Leslie, W. W. Read, G. B. Studd, E. F. S. Tylecote and G. F. Vernon (all Eng) made their Test debuts.

### Second Test

* 19–22 January 1883 (Timeless Test) Scorecard
* England won by an innings and 27 runs Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: E. H. Elliott (Aus) and J. S. Swift (Aus)
* England won the toss and elected to bat.
* 21 January was taken as a rest day.
* This was the first Test match to be won by an innings margin.
* Billy Bates became the first England player to take a Test hat-trick with the first-innings wickets of Percy McDonnell, George Giffen and George Bonnor. He was also the first player in Test history to score a 50 and take 10 wickets in a match.

### Third Test

* 26–30 January 1883 (Timeless Test) Scorecard
* England won by 69 runs Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: E. H. Elliott (Aus) and J. S. Swift (Aus)
* England won the toss and elected to bat.
* 28 January was taken as a rest day.
* This match saw the creation of the Ashes urn; with England having won the series, some Australian ladies burnt a bail and put the ashes in an urn, which remains in the Memorial Gallery at Lord's.

### Fourth Test

* 17–21 February 1883 (Timeless Test) Scorecard
* Australia won by 4 wickets Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: E. H. Elliott (Aus) and J. S. Swift (Aus)
* England won the toss and elected to bat.
* 18 February was taken as a rest day.
* Four separate pitches were used in the match, one for each innings.

## Players

England was captained by Ivo Bligh and had Edward Tylecote as its specialist wicket-keeper, the other players being Billy Bates, Dick Barlow, A. G. Steel, Charles Leslie, Walter Read, Charles Studd, Fred Morley, Billy Barnes, George Vernon and George Studd.
Australia was captained by Billy Murdoch and had Jack Blackham as wicket-keeper. Other players to represent Australia were Billy Midwinter, Alec Bannerman, George Bonnor, Tom Horan, Percy McDonnell, George Giffen, Harry Boyle, Edwin Evans, Hugh Massie, Eugene Palmer, Tom Garrett and Fred Spofforth.

## Ceylon

The team used Colombo as a stopover during its long sea voyage and played two matches against local sides in October 1882 that were not first-class. This was the first time that an overseas team visited Ceylon.

## Other matches in Australia

Besides the four against Combined Australia, Bligh's XI played in fourteen matches against colonial and club teams. Some of these were scheduled for two days' play, others for three days.