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1301 | "The Ashes" | before the Final Test, which England won by 6 wickets. The English heroes were Peel, with 27 wickets in the series at an average of 26.70, and Tom Richardson, with 32 at 26.53. In 1896 England under the captaincy of W. G. Grace won the series 2β1, and this marked the end of England's longest period of Ashes dominance. Australia resoundingly won the 1897β98 series by 4β1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott. His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901β02 and the classic 1902 series, which became one of the most famous in the history | 155 | 557 |
1302 | "The Ashes" | of Test cricket. Five matches were played in 1902 but the first two were drawn after being hit by bad weather. In the First Test (the first played at Edgbaston), after scoring 376 England bowled out Australia for 36 (Wilfred Rhodes 7/17) and reduced them to 46β2 when they followed on. Australia won the Third and Fourth Tests at Bramall Lane and Old Trafford respectively. At Old Trafford, Australia won by just 3 runs after Victor Trumper had scored 104 on a "bad wicket", reaching his hundred before lunch on the first day. England won the last Test at The | 135 | 559 |
1303 | "The Ashes" | Oval by one wicket. Chasing 263 to win, it slumped to 48β5 before Jessop's 104 gave them a chance. He reached his hundred in just 75 minutes. The last-wicket pair of George Hirst and Rhodes were required to score 15 runs for victory. When Rhodes joined him, Hirst reportedly said: "We'll get them in singles, Wilfred." In fact, they scored thirteen singles and a two. The period of Darling's captaincy saw the emergence of outstanding Australian players such as Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, James Kelly, Monty Noble, Clem Hill, Hugh Trumble and Ernie Jones. After what the MCC saw as the | 147 | 586 |
1304 | "The Ashes" | problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903β04. England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book "How We Recovered The Ashes". The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as "The Ashes". England and Australia were evenly matched until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Five more | 125 | 572 |
1305 | "The Ashes" | series took place between 1905 and 1912. In 1905 England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won the series 2β0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907β08 and 1909. Then England won in 1911β12 by four matches to one. Jack Hobbs establishing himself as England's first-choice opening batsman with three centuries, while Frank Foster (32 wickets at 21.62) and Sydney Barnes (34 wickets at 22.88) formed a formidable bowling partnership. England retained the Ashes when it won the 1912 Triangular Tournament, | 153 | 611 |
1306 | "The Ashes" | which also featured South Africa. The Australian touring party had been severely weakened by a dispute between the board and players that caused Clem Hill, Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter, Sammy Carter and Vernon Ransford to be omitted. After the war, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. It won the first eight matches in | 122 | 603 |
1307 | "The Ashes" | succession including a 5β0 whitewash in 1920β1921 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team. The ruthless and belligerent Armstrong led his team back to England in 1921 where his men lost only two games late in the tour to narrowly miss out of being the first team to complete a tour of England without defeat. England won only one Test out of 15 from the end of the war until 1925. In a rain-hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a 1β0 victory with a win in the final Test at The Oval. Because the series was at | 136 | 520 |
1308 | "The Ashes" | stake, the match was to be "timeless", i.e., played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe took the score to 49β0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make | 140 | 556 |
1309 | "The Ashes" | 161 and England won the game comfortably. Australian captain Herbie Collins was stripped of all captaincy positions down to club level, and some accused him of throwing the match. Australia's ageing post-war team broke up after 1926, with Collins, Charlie Macartney and Warren Bardsley all departing, and Gregory breaking down at the start of the 1928β29 series. Despite the debut of Donald Bradman, the inexperienced Australians, led by Jack Ryder, were heavily defeated, losing 4β1. England had a very strong batting side, with Wally Hammond contributing 905 runs at an average of 113.12, and Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Patsy Hendren all | 148 | 633 |
1310 | "The Ashes" | scoring heavily; the bowling was more than adequate, without being outstanding. In 1930, Bill Woodfull led an extremely inexperienced team to England. Bradman fulfilled his promise in the 1930 series when he scored 974 runs at 139.14, which remains a world record Test series aggregate. A modest Bradman can be heard in a 1930 recording saying "I have always endeavoured to do my best for the side, and the few centuries that have come my way have been achieved in the hope of winning matches. My one idea when going into bat was to make runs for Australia." In the | 131 | 565 |
1311 | "The Ashes" | Headingley Test, he made 334, reaching 309* at the end of the first day, including a century before lunch. Bradman himself thought that his 254 in the preceding match, at Lord's, was a better innings. England managed to stay in contention until the deciding final Test at The Oval, but yet another double hundred by Bradman, and 7/92 by Percy Hornibrook in England's second innings, enabled Australia to win by an innings and take the series 2β1. Clarrie Grimmett's 29 wickets at 31.89 for Australia in this high-scoring series were also important. Australia had one of the strongest batting line-ups | 147 | 600 |
1312 | "The Ashes" | ever in the early 1930s, with Bradman, Archie Jackson, Stan McCabe, Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford. It was the prospect of bowling at this line-up that caused England's 1932β33 captain Douglas Jardine to adopt the tactic of fast leg theory, better known as Bodyline. Jardine instructed his fast bowlers, most notably Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsmen, with the goal of forcing them to defend their bodies with their bats, thus providing easy catches to a stacked leg-side field. Jardine insisted that the tactic was legitimate and called it "leg theory" but | 143 | 602 |
1313 | "The Ashes" | it was widely disparaged by its opponents, who dubbed it "Bodyline" (from "on the line of the body"). Although England decisively won the Ashes 4β1, Bodyline caused such a furore in Australia that diplomats had to intervene to prevent serious harm to Anglo-Australian relations, and the MCC eventually changed the Laws of cricket to curtail the number of leg side fielders. Jardine's comment was: "I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes". Some of the Australians wanted to use Bodyline in retaliation, but Woodfull flatly refused. He famously told England manager Pelham Warner, "There | 148 | 620 |
1314 | "The Ashes" | are two teams out there. One is playing cricket; the other is making no attempt to do so" after the latter had come into the Australian rooms to express sympathy for a Larwood bouncer had struck the Australian skipper in the heart and felled him. On the batting-friendly wickets that prevailed in the late 1930s, most Tests up to the Second World War still gave results. It should be borne in mind that Tests in Australia prior to the war were all played to a finish. Many batting records were set in this period. The 1934 Ashes series began with | 124 | 546 |
1315 | "The Ashes" | the notable absence of Larwood, Voce and Jardine. The MCC had made it clear, in light of the revelations of the bodyline series, that these players would not face Australia. The MCC, although it had earlier condoned and encouraged bodyline tactics in the 1932β33 series, laid the blame on Larwood when relations turned sour. Larwood was forced by the MCC to either apologise or be removed from the Test side. He went for the latter. Australia recovered the Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953, though no Test cricket was played during the Second World War. As in 1930, | 137 | 571 |
1316 | "The Ashes" | the 1934 series was decided in the final Test at The Oval. Australia, batting first, posted a massive 701 in the first innings. Bradman (244) and Ponsford (266) were in record-breaking form with a partnership of 451 for the second wicket. England eventually faced a massive 707-run target for victory and failed, Australia winning the series 2β1. This made Woodfull the only captain to regain the Ashes and he retired upon his return to Australia. In 1936β37 Bradman succeeded Woodfull as Australian captain. He started badly, losing the first two Tests heavily after Australia were caught on sticky wickets. However, | 143 | 617 |
1317 | "The Ashes" | the Australians fought back and Bradman won his first series in charge 3β2. The 1938 series was a high-scoring affair with two high-scoring draws, resulting in a 1β1 result, Australia retaining the Ashes. After the first two matches ended in stalemate and the Third Test at Old Trafford never started due to rain. Australia then scraped home by five wickets inside three days in a low-scoring match at Headingley to retain the urn. In the timeless Fifth Test at The Oval, the highlight was Len Hutton's then world-record score of 364 as England made 903-7 declared. Bradman and Jack Fingleton | 141 | 592 |
1318 | "The Ashes" | injured themselves during Hutton's marathon effort, and with only nine men, Australia fell to defeat by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest in Test history. The Ashes resumed after the war when England toured in 1946β47 and, as in 1920β21, found that Australia had made the better post-war recovery. Still captained by Bradman and now featuring the potent new-ball partnership of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, Australia was convincing 3β0 winners. Aged 38 and having been unwell during the war, Bradman had been reluctant to play. He batted unconvincingly and reached 28 when he hit a ball to Jack | 146 | 600 |
1319 | "The Ashes" | Ikin; England believed it was a catch, but Bradman stood his ground, believing it to be a bump ball. The umpire ruled in the Australian captain's favour and he appeared to regain his fluency of yesteryear, scoring 187. Australia promptly seized the initiative, won the First Test convincingly and inaugurated a dominant post-war era. The controversy over the Ikin catch was one of the biggest disputes of the era. In 1948 Australia set new standards, completely outplaying its hosts to win 4β0 with one draw. This Australian team, led by Bradman, who turned 40 during his final tour of England, | 139 | 594 |
1320 | "The Ashes" | has gone down in history as "The Invincibles". Playing 34 matches on tourβthree of which were not first-classβand including the five Tests, they remained unbeaten, winning 27 and drawing 7. Bradman's men were greeted by packed crowds across the country, and records for Test attendances in England were set in the Second and Fourth Tests at Lord's and Headingley respectively. Before a record attendance of spectators at Headingley, Australia set a world record by chasing down 404 on the last day for a seven-wicket victory. The 1948 series ended with one of the most poignant moments in cricket history, as | 137 | 608 |
1321 | "The Ashes" | Bradman played his final innings for Australia in the Fifth Test at The Oval, needing to score only four runs to end with a career batting average of exactly 100. However, Bradman made a second-ball duck, bowled by an Eric Hollies googly that sent him into retirement with a career average of 99.94. Bradman was succeeded as Australian captain by Lindsay Hassett, who led the team to a 4β1 series victory in 1950β51. The series was not as one-sided as the number of wins suggest, with several tight matches. The tide finally turned in 1953 when England won the final | 135 | 566 |
1322 | "The Ashes" | Test at The Oval to take the series 1β0, having narrowly avoided defeat in the preceding Test at Headingley. This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock, wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans and all-rounder Trevor Bailey. In 1954β55, Australia's batsmen had no answer to the pace of Frank Tyson and Statham. After winning the First Test by an innings after being controversially sent in by Hutton, Australia lost its | 154 | 619 |
1323 | "The Ashes" | way and England took a hat-trick of victories to win the series 3β1. A dramatic series in 1956 saw a record that will probably never be beaten: off-spinner Jim Laker's monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 68 of 191 overs to take 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets in the Fourth Test. It was Australia's second consecutive innings defeat in a wet summer, and the hosts were in strong positions in the two drawn Tests, in which half the playing time was washed out. Bradman rated the team that won the series 2β1 as England's best ever. | 133 | 552 |
1324 | "The Ashes" | England's dominance was not to last. Australia won 4β0 in 1958β59, having found a high-quality spinner of their own in new skipper Richie Benaud, who took 31 wickets in the five-Test series, and paceman Alan Davidson, who took 24 wickets at 19.00. The series was overshadowed by the furore over various Australian bowlers, most notably Ian Meckiff, whom the English management and media accused of illegally throwing Australia to victory. Australia consolidated its status as the leading team in world cricket with a hard-fought 2β1 away series. After narrowly winning the Second Test at Lord's, dubbed "The Battle of the | 150 | 621 |
1325 | "The Ashes" | Ridge" because of a protrusion on the pitch that caused erratic bounce, Australia mounted a comeback on the final day of the Fourth Test at Old Trafford and sealed the series after a heavy collapse during the English runchase. The tempo of the play changed over the next four series in the 1960s, held in 1962β63, 1964, 1965β66 and 1968. The powerful array of bowlers that both countries boasted in the preceding decade moved into retirement, and their replacements were of lesser quality, making it more difficult to force a result. England failed to win any series during the 1960s, | 138 | 584 |
1326 | "The Ashes" | a period dominated by draws as teams found it more prudent to save face than risk losing. Of the 20 Tests played during the four series, Australia won four and England three. As they held the Ashes, Australia's captains Bob Simpson and Bill Lawry were happy to adopt safety-first tactics and their strategy of sedate batting saw many draws. During this period, spectator attendances dropped and media condemnation increased, but Simpson and Lawry flatly disregarded the public dissatisfaction. It was in the 1960s that the bipolar dominance of England and Australia in world cricket was seriously challenged for the first | 125 | 621 |
1327 | "The Ashes" | time. West Indies defeated England twice in the mid-1960s and South Africa, in two series before they were banned for apartheid, completely outplayed Australia 3β1 and 4β0. Australia had lost 2β1 during a tour of the West Indies in 1964β65, the first time it had lost a series to any team other than England. In 1970β71, Ray Illingworth led England to a 2β0 win in Australia, mainly due to John Snow's fast bowling, and the prolific batting of Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich. It was not until the last session of what was the 7th Test (one match having been | 147 | 559 |
1328 | "The Ashes" | abandoned without a ball bowled) that England's success was secured. Lawry was sacked after the Sixth Test after the selectors finally lost patience with Australia's lack of success and dour strategy. Lawry was not informed of the decision privately and heard his fate over the radio. The 1972 series finished 2β2, with England under Illingworth retaining the Ashes. In the 1974β75 series, with the England team breaking up and their best batsman Geoff Boycott refusing to play, Australian pace bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee wreaked havoc. A 4β1 result was a fair reflection as England were left shell shocked. | 142 | 619 |
1329 | "The Ashes" | England then lost the 1975 series 0β1, but at least restored some pride under new captain Tony Greig. Australia won the 1977 Centenary Test which was not an Ashes contest, but then a storm broke as Kerry Packer announced his intention to form World Series Cricket. WSC affected all Test-playing nations but it weakened Australia especially as the bulk of its players had signed up with Packer; the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) would not select WSC-contracted players and an almost completely new Test team had to be formed. WSC came after an era during which the duopoly of Australian and | 132 | 590 |
1330 | "The Ashes" | English dominance dissipated; the Ashes had long been seen as a cricket world championship but the rise of the West Indies in the late 1970s challenged that view. The West Indies would go on to record resounding Test series wins over Australia and England and dominated world cricket until the 1990s. With Greig having joined WSC, England appointed Mike Brearley as its captain and he enjoyed great success against Australia. Largely assisted by the return of Boycott, Brearley's men won the 1977 series 3β0 and then completed an overwhelming 5β1 series win against an Australian side missing its WSC players | 138 | 608 |
1331 | "The Ashes" | in 1978β79. Allan Border made his Test debut for Australia in 1978β79. Brearley retired from Test cricket in 1979 and was succeeded by Ian Botham, who started the 1981 series as England captain, by which time the WSC split had ended. After Australia took a 1β0 lead in the first two Tests, Botham was forced to resign or was sacked (depending on the source). Brearley surprisingly agreed to be reappointed before the Third Test at Headingley. This was a remarkable match in which Australia looked certain to take a 2β0 series lead after it had forced England to follow-on 227 | 143 | 575 |
1332 | "The Ashes" | runs behind. England, despite being 135 for 7, produced a second innings total of 356, Botham scoring 149*. Chasing just 130, Australia were sensationally dismissed for 111, Bob Willis taking 8β43. It was the first time since 1894β95 that a team following on had won a Test match. Under Brearley's leadership, England went on to win the next two matches before a drawn final match at The Oval. In 1982β83 Australia had Greg Chappell back from WSC as captain, while the England team was weakened by the enforced omission of their South African tour rebels, particularly Graham Gooch and John | 145 | 590 |
1333 | "The Ashes" | Emburey. Australia went 2β0 up after three Tests, but England won the Fourth Test by 3 runs (after a 70-run last wicket stand) to set up the final decider, which was drawn. In 1985 David Gower's England team was strengthened by the return of Gooch and Emburey as well as the emergence at international level of Tim Robinson and Mike Gatting. Australia, now captained by Allan Border, had itself been weakened by a rebel South African tour, the loss of Terry Alderman being a particular factor. England won 3β1. Despite suffering heavy defeats against the West Indies during the 1980s, | 144 | 584 |
1334 | "The Ashes" | England continued to do well in the Ashes. Mike Gatting was the captain in 1986β87 but his team started badly and attracted some criticism. Then Chris Broad scored three hundreds in successive Tests and bowling successes from Graham Dilley and Gladstone Small meant England won the series 2β1. The Australian team of 1989 was comparable to the great Australian teams of the past, and resoundingly defeated England 4β0. Well led by Allan Border, the team included the young cricketers Mark Taylor, Merv Hughes, David Boon, Ian Healy and Steve Waugh, who were all to prove long-serving and successful Ashes competitors. | 141 | 617 |
1335 | "The Ashes" | England, now led once again by David Gower, suffered from injuries and poor form. During the Fourth Test news broke that prominent England players had agreed to take part in a "rebel tour" of South Africa the following winter; three of them (Tim Robinson, Neil Foster and John Emburey) were playing in the match, and were subsequently dropped from the England side. Australia reached a cricketing peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with a general decline in England's fortunes. After re-establishing its credibility in 1989, Australia underlined its superiority with victories in the 1990β91, 1993, 1994β95, 1997, 1998β99, | 156 | 630 |
1336 | "The Ashes" | 2001 and 2002β03 series, all by convincing margins. Great Australian players in the early years included batsmen Border, Boon, Taylor and Steve Waugh. The captaincy passed from Border to Taylor in the mid-1990s and then to Steve Waugh before the 2001 series. In the latter part of the 1990s Waugh himself, along with his twin brother Mark, scored heavily for Australia and fast bowlers Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie made a serious impact, especially the former. The wicketkeeper-batsman position was held by Ian Healy for most of the 1990s and by Adam Gilchrist from 2001 to 2006β07. In the 2000s, | 158 | 601 |
1337 | "The Ashes" | batsmen Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Matthew Hayden became noted players for Australia. But the most dominant Australian player was leg-spinner Shane Warne, whose first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993, to dismiss Mike Gatting, became known as the Ball of the Century. Australia's record between 1989 and 2005 had a significant impact on the statistics between the two sides. Before the 1989 series began, the win-loss ratio was almost even, with 87 test wins for Australia to England's 86, 74 tests having been drawn. By the 2005 series Australia's test wins had increased to 115 whereas England's had increased | 142 | 617 |
1338 | "The Ashes" | to only 93 (with 82 draws). In the period between 1989 and the beginning of the 2005 series, the two sides had played 43 times; Australia winning 28 times, England 7 times, with 8 draws. Only a single England victory had come in a match in which the Ashes were still at stake, namely the First Test of the 1997 series. All others were consolation victories when the Ashes had been secured by Australia. England was undefeated in Test matches through the 2004 calendar year. This elevated them to second in the ICC Test Championship. Hopes that the 2005 Ashes | 136 | 558 |
1339 | "The Ashes" | series would be closely fought proved well-founded, the series remaining undecided as the closing session of the final Test began. Experienced journalists including Richie Benaud rated the series as the most exciting in living memory. It has been compared with the great series of the distant past, such as 1894β95 and 1902. The First Test at Lord's was convincingly won by Australia, but in the remaining four matches the teams were evenly matched and England fought back to win the Second Test by 2 runs, the smallest winning margin in Ashes history, and the second-smallest in all Tests. The rain-affected | 130 | 608 |
1340 | "The Ashes" | Third Test ended with the last two Australian batsmen holding out for a draw; and England won the Fourth Test by three wickets after forcing Australia to follow-on for the first time in 191 Tests being a period of 17 years. A draw in the final Test gave England victory in an Ashes series for the first time in 18 years and their first Ashes victory at home since 1985. Australia regained the Ashes on its home turf in the 2006β07 series with a convincing 5β0 victory, only the second time an Ashes series has been won by that margin. | 128 | 534 |
1341 | "The Ashes" | Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer retired from Test cricket after that series, while Damien Martyn retired during the series. The 2009 series began with a tense draw in the First Test at SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, with England's last-wicket batsmen James Anderson and Monty Panesar surviving 69 balls. England then achieved its first Ashes win at Lord's since 1934 to go 1β0 up. After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, the fourth match at Headingley was convincingly won by Australia by an innings and 80 runs to level the series. Finally, England won the Fifth Test at The Oval | 144 | 590 |
1342 | "The Ashes" | by a margin of 197 runs to regain the Ashes. Andrew Flintoff retired from Test cricket soon afterwards. The 2010β11 series was played in Australia. The First Test at Brisbane ended in a draw, but England won the Second Test, at Adelaide, by an innings and 71 runs. Australia came back with a victory at Perth in the Third Test. In the Fourth Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, England batting second scored 513 to defeat Australia (98 and 258) by an innings and 157 runs. This gave England an unbeatable 2β1 lead in the series and so it retained the | 131 | 548 |
1343 | "The Ashes" | Ashes. England went on to win the series 3β1, beating Australia by an innings and 83 runs at Sydney in the Fifth Test. Australia, captained by Michael Clarke, batted first on a cloudy day after winning the toss and were bowled out for 280. England made 644, their highest innings total since 1938. England then bowled Australia out again for 281. England's series victory was its first on Australian soil for 24 years. The 2010β11 Ashes series was the only one in which a team had won three Tests by innings margins and it was the first time England had | 135 | 553 |
1344 | "The Ashes" | scored 500 or more four times in a single series. Australia's build-up to the 2013 Ashes series was far from ideal. Darren Lehmann took over as coach from Mickey Arthur following a string of poor results. A batting line-up weakened by the previous year's retirements of former captain Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey, was also shorn of opener David Warner, who was suspended for the start of the series following an off-field incident. The tourists put those issues behind them to bowl England out for 215 after losing the toss in the First Test at Trent Bridge. In the face | 127 | 572 |
1345 | "The Ashes" | of high-class swing bowling from James Anderson, who ended with 10 wickets in the match, Australia collapsed to 117β9. However, debutant 19-year-old Ashton Agar made a world-record 98 for a number 11 and Phil Hughes an unbeaten 81 to secure an unlikely lead of 65. England's second-innings total of 375 set Australia a target of 311, against which it fell short by only 14 runs in a tense finish. In the Second Test, England beat Australia by 347 runs in a very one-sided contest. In the Third Test, held at a newly refurbished Old Trafford, Australia won the toss and | 140 | 568 |
1346 | "The Ashes" | elected to bat first. It amassed a commanding score of 527β7, led by captain Michael Clarke's 187. The pressure was then on the home side to avoid the follow-on. England scored 368 with a century for Kevin Pietersen. Australia's second innings score was 172β7 at the end of Day 4, characterised by batting order changes to achieve a fast run rate to allow enough time to bowl England out amid inclement weather forecasts. Australia declared overnight to post England a target of 332 to win. Contrary to expectations, play resumed with only a minor delay on Day 5, and with | 134 | 572 |
1347 | "The Ashes" | captain Alastair Cook being bowled out for 0 (his first duck in 26 innings as captain), Australia looked to be in with a significant chance of a win, keeping its series hopes alive. By lunch England were 37β3, but on resumption of play only 3 balls were bowled before rain stopped play. This rain persisted and, at 16:40, the captains shook hands and the match was declared a draw. With England 2β0 up with two Tests to play, England retained the Ashes on 5 August 2013. In the Fourth Test, England won the toss and batted first, putting on 238 | 141 | 544 |
1348 | "The Ashes" | runs, Australia took a narrow lead scoring 270 in its first innings. In the second innings England scored 330, Ian Bell top-scoring with 113. Needing only 298 runs to win Australia was in a strong position at 138/2, only 160 short with eight wickets in hand. Following a rain delay, Australia crashed to a 74-run defeat, losing all eight wickets for only 86 runs. England had taken 9 wickets in the final session of the fourth day. Stuart Broad was England's top wicket-taker in the match with 11 wickets. England held a 3β0 lead going into the final Fifth Test | 142 | 561 |
1349 | "The Ashes" | at The Oval. The final Test was drawn. On the fourth day no play was possible due to rain, but on the final day after an aggressive Australian declaration, England came close to achieving its first 4β0 victory in an Ashes series. Play was abandoned, owing to bad light, denying a thrilling finish to the large crowd of spectators. There was media criticism of the new ICC rules requiring umpires to stop play when failing light was measured at a specified level. In the second of two Ashes series held in 2013 (the series ended in 2014), this time hosted | 125 | 554 |
1350 | "The Ashes" | by Australia, the home team won the series five test matches to nil. This was the third time Australia has completed a clean sweep (or "whitewash") in Ashes history, a feat never matched by England. All six Australian specialist batsmen scored more runs than any Englishman with 10 centuries among them, with only debutant Ben Stokes scoring a century for England. Mitchell Johnson took 37 English wickets at 13.97 and Ryan Harris 22 wickets at 19.31 in the 5-Test series. Only Stuart Broad and all-rounder Stokes bowled effectively for England, with their spinner Graeme Swann retiring due to a chronic | 142 | 603 |
1351 | "The Ashes" | elbow injury after the decisive Third Test. Australia came into the next Ashes series in England as favourites to retain the Ashes. Although England won the first Test in Cardiff, Australia won comfortably in the second Test at Lords. In the next two Tests, the Australian batsmen struggled, being bowled out for 136 in the first innings at Edgbaston , with England proceeding to win by eight wickets. This was followed by Australia being bowled out for 60 as Stuart Broad took fastest five wickets and finished the spell with 8 for 15 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, | 126 | 573 |
1352 | "The Ashes" | the quickest - in terms of balls faced - a team has been bowled out in the first innings of a Test match. With victory by an innings and 78 runs on the morning of the third day of the Fourth Test, England regained the Ashes. During the buildup, the 2017β18 Ashes series was regarded as a turning point for both sides. Australia were criticised for being too reliant on captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner, while England was said to have a shoddy middle to lower order. Off the field, England all-rounder Ben Stokes was ruled out of | 128 | 545 |
1353 | "The Ashes" | the side indefinitely due to a police investigation. England won the toss in the first test match in Brisbane and elected to bat. Despite losing Alistair Cook early they thrived on the unusually slow pitch and were well placed before Patrick Cummins removed opener Mark Stoneman and Nathan Lyon abruptly ended James Vince's innings with a brilliant run out. England eventually went on to make 302. Australia, however, started terribly, with debutant Bancroft, Khawaja, Warner and Handscomb all falling early. A partnership between Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh ensured Australia wouldn't be blown away, before Smith then paired with Patrick | 129 | 638 |
1354 | "The Ashes" | Cummins to see Australia pass England's score. Facing a first-innings deficit, England again lost Alistair Cook early, but Joe Root was able to steady the ship. After he was removed by Josh Hazlewood, little resistance was provided, and the Aussies only required 170 to win from tea on day four. Openers Warner and Bancroft easily saw Australia through to a 10 wicket win over the next two sessions. Australia won the second Test at Adelaide by 120 runs, which was the first ever day-night Ashes test match. Australia regained The Ashes with an innings and 41 run win in the | 134 | 574 |
1355 | "The Ashes" | third Test at Perth, the final Ashes Test at the WACA Ground. In the 134 years since 1883, Australia have held the Ashes for approximately 78.5 years, and England for 55.5 years: Test results, up to and including the 2017β18 Ashes series: Series results, up to and including the 2017β18 Ashes series: A team must win a series to gain the right to hold the Ashes. A drawn series results in the previous holders retaining the Ashes. Ashes series have generally been played over five Test matches, although there have been four-match series (1938; 1975) and six-match series (1970β71; 1974β75; | 159 | 590 |
1356 | "The Ashes" | 1978β79; 1981; 1985; 1989; 1993 and 1997). Australians have made 264 centuries in Ashes Tests, of which 23 have been scores over 200, while Englishmen have scored 212 centuries, of which 10 have been over 200. Australians have taken 10 wickets in a match on 41 occasions, Englishmen 38 times. The series alternates between the United Kingdom and Australia, and within each country each of the usually five matches is held at different grounds. In Australia, the grounds currently used are the Gabba in Brisbane (first staged an EnglandβAustralia Test in the 1932β33 season), Adelaide Oval (1884β85), the Melbourne Cricket | 159 | 621 |
1357 | "The Ashes" | Ground (MCG) (1876β77), and the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) (1881β82). A single Test was held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in 1928β29. Traditionally, Melbourne hosts the Boxing Day Test and Sydney hosts the New Year Test. Additionally the WACA in Perth (1970β71) hosted its final Ashes Test in 2017β18 and is due to be replaced by Perth Stadium for the 2021β22 series. Cricket Australia proposed that the 2010β11 series consist of six Tests, with the additional game to be played at Bellerive Oval in Hobart. The England and Wales Cricket Board declined and the series was played over five Tests. | 154 | 601 |
1358 | "The Ashes" | In England and Wales, the grounds used are: Old Trafford in Manchester (1884), The Oval in Kennington, South London (1884); Lord's in St John's Wood, North London (1884); Trent Bridge at West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire (1899), Headingley in Leeds (1899); Edgbaston in Birmingham (1902); Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales (2009); and the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, County Durham (2013). One Test was also held at Bramall Lane in Sheffield in 1902. Traditionally the final Test of the series is played at the Oval. Sophia Gardens and the Riverside were excluded as Test grounds between the years of 2020 and 2024 and | 159 | 625 |
1359 | "The Ashes" | therefore will not host an Ashes Test until at least 2027. Trent Bridge is also not due to host an Ashes Test in 2019 or 2023. The popularity and reputation of the cricket series has led to other sports or games, and/or their followers, using the name "Ashes" for contests between England and Australia. The best-known and longest-running of these events is the rugby league rivalry between Great Britain and Australia (see rugby league "Ashes"). Use of the name "Ashes" was suggested by the Australian team when rugby league matches between the two countries commenced in 1908. Other examples included | 134 | 602 |
1360 | "The Ashes" | the television game shows "Gladiators" and "Sale of the Century", both of which broadcast special editions containing contestants from the Australian and English versions of the shows competing against each other. The term became further genericised in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century, and was used to describe many sports rivalries or competitions outside the context of Australia vs England. The Australian rules football interstate carnival, and the small silver casket which served as its trophy, were symbolically known as "the Ashes" of Australian football, and was spoken of as such until at least the 1940s. The | 127 | 640 |
1361 | "The Ashes" | soccer rivalry between Australia and New Zealand was described as "the soccer ashes of Australasia" until as late as the 1950s; ashes from cigars smoked by the two countries' captains were put into a casket in 1923 to make the trophy literal. The interstate rugby league rivalry between Queensland and New South Wales was known for a time as Australia's rugby league ashes, and bowls competitions between the two states also regularly used the term. Even some local rivalries, such as southern Western Australia's annual Great Southern Football Carnival, were locally described as "the ashes". This genericised usage is no | 127 | 622 |
1362 | "The Ashes" | longer common, and "the Ashes" would today be assumed only to apply to a contest between Australia and England. The Ashes featured in the film "The Final Test", released in 1953, based on a television play by Terence Rattigan. It stars Jack Warner as an England cricketer playing the last Test of his career, which is the last of an Ashes series; the film includes cameo appearances of English captain Len Hutton and other players who were part of England's 1953 triumph. Douglas Adams's 1982 science fiction comedy novel "Life, the Universe and Everything" β the third part of "The | 137 | 582 |
1363 | "The Ashes" | Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series β features the urn containing the Ashes as a significant element of its plot. The urn is stolen by alien robots, as the burnt stump inside is part of a key needed to unlock the "Wikkit Gate" and release an imprisoned world called Krikkit. "Bodyline", a fictionalised television miniseries based on the "Bodyline" Ashes series of 1932β33, was screened in Australia in 1984. The cast included Gary Sweet as Donald Bradman and Hugo Weaving as England captain Douglas Jardine. The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The | 144 | 600 |
1364 | Analysis | Analysis Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (384β322 B.C.), though "analysis" as a formal concept is a relatively recent development. The word comes from the Ancient Greek αΌΞ½Ξ¬Ξ»Ο
ΟΞΉΟ ("analysis", "a breaking up", from "ana-" "up, throughout" and "lysis" "a loosening"). As a formal concept, the method has variously been ascribed to Alhazen, RenΓ© Descartes ("Discourse on the Method"), and Galileo Galilei. It has also been ascribed to Isaac | 152 | 627 |
1365 | Analysis | Newton, in the form of a practical method of physical discovery (which he did not name). The field of chemistry uses analysis in at least three ways: to identify the components of a particular chemical compound (qualitative analysis), to identify the proportions of components in a mixture (quantitative analysis), and to break down chemical processes and examine chemical reactions between elements of matter. For an example of its use, analysis of the concentration of elements is important in managing a nuclear reactor, so nuclear scientists will analyse neutron activation to develop discrete measurements within vast samples. A matrix can have | 116 | 649 |
1366 | Analysis | a considerable effect on the way a chemical analysis is conducted and the quality of its results. Analysis can be done manually or with a device. Chemical analysis is an important element of national security among the major world powers with materials Chemists can use isotope analysis to assist analysts with issues in anthropology, archeology, food chemistry, forensics, geology, and a host of other questions of physical science. Analysts can discern the origins of natural and man-made isotopes in the study of environmental radioactivity. Analysts in the field of engineering look at requirements, structures, mechanisms, systems and dimensions. Electrical engineers | 127 | 672 |
1367 | Analysis | analyse systems in electronics. Life cycles and system failures are broken down and studied by engineers. It is also looking at different factors incorporated within the design. The field of intelligence employs analysts to break down and understand a wide array of questions. Intelligence agencies may use heuristics, inductive and deductive reasoning, social network analysis, dynamic network analysis, link analysis, and brainstorming to sort through problems they face. Military intelligence may explore issues through the use of game theory, Red Teaming, and wargaming. Signals intelligence applies cryptanalysis and frequency analysis to break codes and ciphers. Business intelligence applies theories of | 127 | 710 |
1368 | Analysis | competitive intelligence analysis and competitor analysis to resolve questions in the marketplace. Law enforcement intelligence applies a number of theories in crime analysis. Linguistics look at individual languages and language in general. It breaks language down and analyses its component parts: theory, sounds and their meaning, utterance usage, word origins, the history of words, the meaning of words and word combinations, sentence construction, basic construction beyond the sentence level, stylistics, and conversation. It examines the above using statistics and modeling, and semantics. It analyses language in context of anthropology, biology, evolution, geography, history, neurology, psychology, and sociology. It also takes | 130 | 738 |
1369 | Analysis | the applied approach, looking at individual language development and clinical issues. Literary criticism is the analysis of literature. The focus can be as diverse as the analysis of Homer or Freud. While not all literary-critical methods are primarily analytical in nature, the main approach to the teaching of literature in the west since the mid-twentieth century, literary formal analysis or close reading, is. This method, rooted in the academic movement labelled The New Criticism, approaches texts β chiefly short poems such as sonnets, which by virtue of their small size and significant complexity lend themselves well to this type of | 119 | 643 |
1370 | Analysis | analysis β as units of discourse that can be understood in themselves, without reference to biographical or historical frameworks. This method of analysis breaks up the text linguistically in a study of prosody (the formal analysis of meter) and phonic effects such as alliteration and rhyme, and cognitively in examination of the interplay of syntactic structures, figurative language, and other elements of the poem that work to produce its larger effects. Modern mathematical analysis is the study of infinite processes. It is the branch of mathematics that includes calculus. It can be applied in the study of classical concepts of | 122 | 635 |
1371 | Analysis | mathematics, such as real numbers, complex variables, trigonometric functions, and algorithms, or of non-classical concepts like constructivism, harmonics, infinity, and vectors. Florian Cajori explains in (1893) the difference between modern and ancient mathematical analysis, as distinct from logical analysis, as follows: The terms "synthesis" and "analysis" are used in mathematics in a more special sense than in logic. In ancient mathematics they had a different meaning from what they now have. The oldest definition of mathematical analysis as opposed to synthesis is that given in [appended to] Euclid, XIII. 5, which in all probability was framed by Eudoxus: "Analysis is | 146 | 681 |
1372 | Analysis | the obtaining of the thing sought by assuming it and so reasoning up to an admitted truth; synthesis is the obtaining of the thing sought by reasoning up to the inference and proof of it." The analytic method is not conclusive, unless all operations involved in it are known to be reversible. To remove all doubt, the Greeks, as a rule, added to the analytic process a synthetic one, consisting of a reversion of all operations occurring in the analysis. Thus the aim of analysis was to aid in the discovery of synthetic proofs or solutions. James Gow uses a | 113 | 558 |
1373 | Analysis | similar argument as Cajori, with the following clarification, in his "A Short History of Greek Mathematics" (1884): The synthetic proof proceeds by shewing that the proposed new truth involves certain admitted truths. An analytic proof begins by an assumption, upon which a synthetic reasoning is founded. The Greeks distinguished "theoretic" from "problematic" analysis. A theoretic analysis is of the following kind. To "prove" that A is B, "assume" first that A is B. If so, then, since B is C and C is D and D is E, therefore A is E. If this be known a falsity, A is | 137 | 570 |
1374 | Analysis | not B. But if this be a known truth and all the intermediate propositions be convertible, then the reverse process, A is E, E is D, D is C, C is B, therefore A is B, constitutes a synthetic proof of the original theorem. Problematic analysis is applied in all cases where it is proposed to construct a figure which is assumed to satisfy a given condition. The problem is then converted into some theorem which is involved in the condition and which is proved synthetically, and the steps of this synthetic proof taken backwards are a synthetic solution of | 115 | 555 |
1375 | Analysis | the problem. In statistics, the term "analysis" may refer to any method used for data analysis. Among the many such methods, some are: Analysis Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (384β322 B.C.), though "analysis" as a formal concept is a relatively recent development. The word comes from the Ancient Greek αΌΞ½Ξ¬Ξ»Ο
ΟΞΉΟ ("analysis", "a breaking up", from "ana-" "up, throughout" and "lysis" "a loosening"). As a formal concept, the | 143 | 615 |
1376 | "Abner Doubleday" | Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819January 26, 1893) was a career United States Army officer and Union 2-star general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his relief by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade caused lasting enmity between the two men. In San Francisco, after the war, he obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs there. In his final years in | 148 | 554 |
1377 | "Abner Doubleday" | New Jersey, he was a prominent member and later president of the Theosophical Society. In 1908, fifteen years after his death, Doubleday was declared by the Mills Commission to have invented the game of baseball (a claim never made by Doubleday during his lifetime). This claim has been thoroughly debunked by baseball historians. Doubleday, the son of Ulysses F. Doubleday and Hester Donnelly, was born in Ballston Spa, New York, in a small house on the corner of Washington and Fenwick streets. As a child, Abner was very short. The family all slept in the attic loft of the one-room | 144 | 585 |
1378 | "Abner Doubleday" | house. His paternal grandfather, also named Abner, had fought in the American Revolutionary War. His maternal grandfather Thomas Donnelly joined the army at 14 and was a mounted messenger for George Washington. His great grandfather Peter Donnelly was a Minuteman. His father, Ulysses F., fought in the War of 1812, published newspapers and books, and represented Auburn, New York for four years in the United States Congress. Abner spent his childhood in Auburn and later was sent to Cooperstown to live with his uncle and attend a private preparatory high school. He practiced as a surveyor and civil engineer for | 135 | 615 |
1379 | "Abner Doubleday" | two years before entering the United States Military Academy in 1838. He graduated in 1842, 24th in a class of 56 cadets, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery. In 1852, he married Mary Hewitt of Baltimore, the daughter of a local lawyer. Doubleday initially served in coastal garrisons and then in the MexicanβAmerican War from 1846 to 1848 and the Seminole Wars from 1856 to 1858. In 1858 he was transferred to Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor serving under Colonel John L. Gardner. By the start of the Civil War, he was a captain | 155 | 570 |
1380 | "Abner Doubleday" | and second in command in the garrison at Fort Sumter, under Major Robert Anderson. He aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot in answer to the Confederate bombardment on April 12, 1861. He subsequently referred to himself as the "hero of Sumter" for this role. Doubleday was promoted to major on May 14, 1861, and commanded the Artillery Department in the Shenandoah Valley from June to August, and then the artillery for Major General Nathaniel Banks's division of the Army of the Potomac. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on February 3, 1862, and was assigned to | 143 | 590 |
1381 | "Abner Doubleday" | duty in northern Virginia while the Army of the Potomac conducted the Peninsula Campaign. His first combat assignment was to lead the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, III Corps of the Army of Virginia during the Northern Virginia Campaign. In the actions at Brawner's farm, just before the Second Battle of Bull Run, he took the initiative to send two of his regiments to reinforce Brigadier General John Gibbon's brigade against a larger Confederate force, fighting it to a standstill. (Personal initiative was required since his division commander, Brig. Gen. Rufus King, was incapacitated by an epileptic seizure at the time. | 139 | 622 |
1382 | "Abner Doubleday" | He was replaced by Brigadier General John P. Hatch.) His men were routed when they encountered Major General James Longstreet's corps, but by the following day, August 30, he took command of the division when Hatch was wounded, and he led his men to cover the retreat of the Union Army. Doubleday again led the division, now assigned to the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac, after South Mountain, where Hatch was wounded again. At Antietam, he led his men into the deadly fighting in the Cornfield and the West Woods, and one colonel described him as a | 132 | 554 |
1383 | "Abner Doubleday" | "gallant officer ... remarkably cool and at the very front of battle." He was wounded when an artillery shell exploded near his horse, throwing him to the ground in a violent fall. He received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for his actions at Antietam and was promoted in March 1863 to major general of volunteers, to rank from November 29, 1862. At Fredericksburg in December 1862, his division mostly sat idle. During the winter, the I Corps was reorganized and Doubleday assumed command of the 3rd Division. At Chancellorsville in May 1863, the division was | 143 | 590 |
1384 | "Abner Doubleday" | kept in reserve. At the start of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was the second infantry division on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brigadier General John Buford. When his corps commander, Major General John F. Reynolds, was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps at 10:50 am. His men fought well in the morning, putting up a stout resistance, but as overwhelming Confederate forces massed against them, their line eventually broke and they retreated back through the town of Gettysburg to the relative safety of Cemetery | 140 | 610 |
1385 | "Abner Doubleday" | Hill south of town. It was Doubleday's finest performance during the war, five hours leading 9,500 men against ten Confederate brigades that numbered more than 16,000. Seven of those brigades sustained casualties that ranged from 35 to 50 percent, indicating the ferocity of the Union defense. On Cemetery Hill, however, the I Corps could muster only a third of its men as effective for duty, and the corps was essentially destroyed as a combat force for the rest of the battle; it would be decommissioned in March 1864, its surviving units consolidated into other corps. On July 2, 1863, Army | 142 | 593 |
1386 | "Abner Doubleday" | of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. George G. Meade replaced Doubleday with Major General John Newton, a more junior officer from another corps. The ostensible reason was a false report by XI Corps commander Major General Oliver O. Howard that Doubleday's corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse, but Meade also had a long history of disdain for Doubleday's combat effectiveness, dating back to South Mountain. Doubleday was humiliated by this snub and held a lasting grudge against Meade, but he returned to division command and fought well for the remainder of the battle. He was wounded | 138 | 609 |
1387 | "Abner Doubleday" | in the neck on the second day of Gettysburg and received a brevet promotion to colonel in the regular army for his service. He formally requested reinstatement as I Corps commander, but Meade refused, and Doubleday left Gettysburg on July 7 for Washington. Doubleday's indecision as a commander in the war resulted in his uncomplimentary nickname "Forty-Eight Hours." Doubleday assumed administrative duties in the defenses of Washington, D.C., where he was in charge of courts martial, which gave him legal experience that he used after the war. His only return to combat was directing a portion of the defenses against | 143 | 620 |
1388 | "Abner Doubleday" | the attack by Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Also while in Washington, Doubleday testified against George Meade at the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, criticizing him harshly over his conduct of the Battle of Gettysburg. While in Washington, Doubleday remained a loyal Republican and staunch supporter of President Abraham Lincoln. Doubleday rode with Lincoln on the train to Gettysburg for the Gettysburg Address and Col. and Mrs. Doubleday attended events with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln in Washington. After the Civil War, Doubleday mustered out of the volunteer | 146 | 641 |
1389 | "Abner Doubleday" | service on August 24, 1865, reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and became the colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry in September 1867. He was stationed in San Francisco from 1869 through 1871 and he took out a patent for the cable car railway that still runs there, receiving a charter for its operation, but signing away his rights when he was reassigned. In 1871 he commanded the 24th U.S. Infantry, an all African-American regiment with headquarters at Fort McKavett, Texas. He retired in 1873 In the 1870s, he was listed in the New York business directory as lawyer. | 149 | 575 |
1390 | "Abner Doubleday" | Doubleday spent much of his time writing. He published two important works on the Civil War: "Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie" (1876), and "Chancellorsville and Gettysburg" (1882), the latter being a volume of the series "Campaigns of the Civil War". In the summer of 1878, Doubleday lived in Mendham Township, New Jersey, and became a prominent member of the Theosophical Society. When two of the founders of that society, Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, moved to India at the end of that year, he was constituted as the president of the American body. Another prominent member was Thomas | 157 | 609 |
1391 | "Abner Doubleday" | A. Edison. Doubleday died of heart disease in 1893. Doubleday's body was laid in state in New York's City Hall and then was taken to Washington by train from Mendham Township, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Although Doubleday achieved minor fame as a competent combat general with experience in many important Civil War battles, he is more widely known as the supposed inventor of the game of baseball, in Elihu Phinney's cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. The Mills Commission, chaired by Abraham G. Mills, the fourth president of the National League, was | 140 | 606 |
1392 | "Abner Doubleday" | appointed in 1905 to determine the origin of baseball. The committee's final report, on December 30, 1907, stated, in part, that "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence obtainable to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839." It concluded by saying, "in the years to come, in the view of the hundreds of thousands of people who are devoted to baseball, and the millions who will be, Abner Doubleday's fame will rest evenly, if not quite as much, upon the fact that he was its inventor ... as upon his brilliant | 143 | 571 |
1393 | "Abner Doubleday" | and distinguished career as an officer in the Federal Army." However, there is considerable evidence to dispute this claim. Baseball historian George B. Kirsch has described the results of the Mills Commission as a "myth". He wrote, "Robert Henderson, Harold Seymour, and other scholars have since debunked the Doubleday-Cooperstown myth, which nonetheless remains powerful in the American imagination because of the efforts of Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown." At his death, Doubleday left many letters and papers, none of which describe baseball or give any suggestion that he considered himself a prominent person in the | 132 | 649 |
1394 | "Abner Doubleday" | evolution of the game, and his "New York Times" obituary did not mention the game at all. Chairman Mills himself, who had been a Civil War colleague of Doubleday and a member of the honor guard for Doubleday's body as it lay in state in New York City, never recalled hearing Doubleday describe his role as the inventor. Doubleday was a cadet at West Point in the year of the alleged invention and his family had moved away from Cooperstown the prior year. Furthermore, the primary testimony to the commission that connected baseball to Doubleday was that of Abner Graves, | 134 | 571 |
1395 | "Abner Doubleday" | whose credibility is questionable; a few years later, he shot his wife to death and was committed to an institution for the criminally insane for the rest of his life. Part of the confusion could stem from there being another man by the same name in Cooperstown in 1839. Despite the lack of solid evidence linking Doubleday to the origins of baseball, Cooperstown, New York, became the new home of what is today the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1937. There may have been some relationship to baseball as a national sport and Abner Doubleday. While the | 128 | 567 |
1396 | "Abner Doubleday" | modern rules of baseball were formulated in New York during the 1840s, it was the scattering of New Yorkers exposed to these rules throughout the country, that spread not only baseball, but also the "New York Rules", thereby harmonizing the rules, and being a catalyst for its growth. Doubleday was a high-ranking officer, whose duties included seeing to provisions for the US Army fighting throughout the south and border states. For the morale of the men, he is said to have provisioned balls and bats for the men. There is a monument to Doubleday at Gettysburg erected by his men, | 132 | 583 |
1397 | "Abner Doubleday" | admirers, and the state of New York. There is a obelisk monument at Arlington National Cemetery where he is buried, located about behind the Lee Mansion. There was a movement to petition the postmaster general to issue a U.S. postage stamp for him in 2011, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Fort Sumter. Doubleday Field is a minor league baseball stadium named for Abner Doubleday, located in Cooperstown, New York, near the Baseball Hall of Fame. It hosted the annual Hall of Fame Game, an exhibition game between two major league teams that was played from 1940 until 2008. The Auburn | 142 | 591 |
1398 | "Abner Doubleday" | Doubledays are a minor league baseball team based in Doubleday's hometown of Auburn, New York. Doubleday Field at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where the Army Black Knights play at Johnson Stadium, is named in Doubleday's honor. The Abner Doubleday Little League and Babe Ruth Fields in Ballston Spa, New York, the town of his birth. The house of his birth still stands in the middle of town and there is a monument to him on Front Street. A sign at the Doubleday Hill Monument, erected in Williamsport, Maryland to commemorate Doubleday's occupation of a | 140 | 585 |
1399 | "Abner Doubleday" | hill there during the Civil War, claims he invented the game in 1835. Mendham Borough, New Jersey and Mendham Township, New Jersey held a municipal holiday known as "Abner Doubleday Day" for numerous years in the General's honor and commissioned a plaque near the sight of his home in the borough in 1998, even though the borough was known as Mendham Township back then. In 2004 the Abner Doubleday Society erected a monument to Doubleday in Iron Spring Park, Ballston Spa, near his birthplace. In the movie "The Ridiculous 6", Doubleday is portrayed by John Turturro. The character organizes the | 150 | 596 |
1400 | "Abner Doubleday" | first game of baseball between the six main characters and a group of Chinese immigrants, creating the rules as he goes, primarily to allow him to win. In the 23rd episode of the anime "Samurai Champloo", titled "Baseball Blues", Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright are featured as American naval officers who engage the main characters and local Japanese people into a baseball game, which the Americans lose. Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819January 26, 1893) was a career United States Army officer and Union 2-star general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort | 144 | 608 |
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