Australian teams had made nine trips to England in the 19th Century in 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1896 and 1899. England overwhelmingly dominated this era by winning seven Test Series and Four Test Matches.

The home team won the First Test Match in England played at the Oval from 6-8 September 1880 by 5 wickets. Dr WG Grace whose influence on the game is proverbial, scored the first century for England (152). Two summers later a seven-run victory by the Australians at the Oval in August 1882 helped originate the 'Ashes'. England convincingly won the series in 1884, 1886, 1880, 1890, and 1893. The low scoring Test Series in 1896 was closely fought but England prevailed 2-1. JT Hearne (5/76) claimed the first ever hat-trick for England in the Ashes. Australia won the first 5-Test Series, the last of the 19th Century, by a 1-0 margin.

The interesting highlight of the 3-Test rubber in 1888 was that the series produced only 1111 runs by both teams, Australia contributing only 507 in six completed innings. At Lords, during the series, 40 wickets fell for an all time low aggregate of 291 runs. 27 of these 40 wickets fell on a single day, 17th July, the 2nd day of the Test Match. Six weeks later the shortest complete 'Ashes' took place at Old Trafford involving only 6 hours and 34 minutes of batting time with Australia's second innings of 70 lasting just 69 minutes.

During this era England were led by Lord Harries, A Shaw, AN Hornby, AG Steel, WG Grace and AE Stoddart. WL Murdoch, HJH Scott, PS McDonnell, JM Blackham, G Giffen, GHS Trott and J Darling captained the visiting Australian teams.

Notable performers on both sides during the Australian tours of England in 19th Century were:
For Australia: WL Murdoch, FR Spofforth, GHS Trott, JJ Lyons and H Trumble
For England: WG Grace, AG Steel, KS Ranjitsinghji, HGraham, T Richardson, GA Lohman, R Peel and J Briggs.

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