Comments:Cricket: England regain Ashes in the Oval sunshine

Are there really ashes in the urn? -Jessie Owenby
 * Good question. According to wikipedia:

"The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.[1]

During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. Some Aborigines hold that The Ashes are those of King Cole, a cricketer who toured England in 1868.[2] The Dowager Countess of Darnley claimed in 1998 that her mother-in-law, Bligh's wife Florence Morphy, said that they were the remains of a lady's veil.[3]

The urn is commonly, but erroneously, believed to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift.[4]"

'''Simply Unbelievable, fantastic acheivment - but can they keep hold of the ashes when they play on the aussie's own turf, and without flintoff in the side.

Not only is there talk that steve harmison is talking of retirement from 5 - day internationals but the next time the 2 sides compete against each other, most of the other players will take that view too..

If they can do this, and come back from aussie with the ashes, then you can class england as a good cricket side.

Chris...'''