The Ashes is the name of a cricket contest between England and Australia. They play a series of long matches, and the winner is said to win the Ashes — or to keep them, if they already held them. The name began as a joke. After Australia beat England in 1882, a newspaper printed a fake death notice saying English cricket had died, and that its body would be burned and the ashes taken to Australia. A tiny urn, said to hold the ashes of a wooden cricket bail, became the prize. Though actually the urn is small enough to hold in your hands, and it usually stays at Lord’s cricket ground in London; the teams play for the honour, not for taking the pot home. Write it with a capital A: the Ashes. It is famous in England and Australia, and almost unknown in everyday Taiwan life unless you follow cricket.