Top prize: The Ashes trophy

A STORY known by a lot fewer people is that England and Australia’s women also play for ashes. Their historical trophy is known as the ‘Ashes Ball’ and was created rather more recently than the trophy that originated in Sunbury. The trophy itself is a hollowed-out wooden cricket ball, made from a 300-year-old yew tree that blew down in the great storm of 1987.
In 1998, Clare Connor and an 18-year-old Charlotte Edwards were among a group of England and touring Australia players who took part in a ceremonial burning in the Harri...