The Birth of the Ashes. The Amazing Story of the First Ashes Test

Here, for the first time, the Oval Test match of 1882 - every bit as dramatic as anything in the 2005 season - is recreated ball by ball all the way to the agonising climax when Australia won by 7 runs. Here, too, is the social context of that match, from the founding of Australia, spiced with a host of insights into how cricket was born and how it grew in a vast, rugged land. The story of The Ashes is more, much more. When the Hon. Ivo Bligh took an England team to Australia in 1882 - 83 he said he was going to reclaim the Ashes of English cricket, lost at the Oval. That led to a meeting with a property baron near Melbourne, an invitation for the team to stay at his mansion for Christmas - a knock-about match against the staff - and the baron's wife, who had a little urn on her mantelpiece. We know what went in it!