LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Cricket lovers were in a spin on Thursday after an 82-year-old British countess claimed the game's oldest and most famous trophy contained nothing but a burnt lady's veil.
The claim could turn to dust hallowed traditions about the Ashes, the
trophy fought over for the last 115 years by Australia and England, the
first two cricketing nations.
The trophy is an urn inside which, generations of fans have been brought
up to believe, are the charred remains of a wooden bail used in an
international match in Australia in 1883. But the Countess of Darnley,
daughter-in-law of the English captain in that match, Ivo Bligh, has
claimed that her mother, Bligh's then sweetheart Florence Murphy, supplied
the Ashes.
"My mother in law told me the Ashes were a burnt veil she wore while Ivo was playing," the Guardian newspaper reported her as saying.
Whether the countess is right or whether the Ashes are the remains of a bail -- a piece of wood perched atop the stumps at which a bowler aims in a cricket game -- will be difficult to establish.
Although Australia have frequently beaten England in a series of cricket
internationals, or Tests, it is tradition that the Ashes remain at the
game's international headquarters, Lord's Cricket Ground in London.
The urn is sealed and is never physically presented to the winning team.