After an English team led by Monkey Hornby lost to the Australians at the Oval in 1882, the Sporting Times newspaper wrote a mock obituary to English cricket, noting that the body would be cremated and the ashes sent to Australia. The following winter's tour to Australia was widely billed as an attempt to reclaim the Ashes. Bligh's team was successful, winning the 3-match Ashes series 2-1, though a fourth game, not played for the Ashes, was lost.
IvoBligh, who in 1900 became the 8th Earl of Darnley, was an extremely talented sportsman who won Blues at racquets and tennis as well as cricket.
Bligh was successful in his quest, for, meeting Murdoch's men in three matches the Englishmen, after losing the first by nine wickets, won the second by an innings and 27 runs and the third by 69 runs.
Bligh's interest in cricket remained as great as ever after he had dropped out of first-class matches, and he was President of the M.C.C. in 1900 and of the Kent County C.C. in 1892 and 1902.
Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley (born 13 March1859 in London, died 10 April1927 in Shorne, Kent), known earlier in his life as The Honourable IvoBligh, was a cricketer who captained the English cricket team in the first ever Ashes series in Australia in 1882/3.
Ivo is commemorated by the poem inscribed on the side of the urn:
Bligh also played for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club in a first-class cricket career that lasted from 1877 to 1883.
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