Australian cricket team in England in 1956


The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1956 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.
England won the series 2-1 with 2 matches drawn and therefore retained The Ashes.
The series is most notable for off-spinner Jim Laker's 46 wickets at an average of 9.60, including all ten wickets in the second innings of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, the first time this had been achieved in Test cricket. In that Test, known as Laker's Match, Laker took 19 wickets for 90 runs, still the best match bowling analysis achieved in both Test and all first-class cricket. The cartoonist Roy Ullyett summed up the summer with the picture of a dazed kangaroo in Australian strip and the ditty: Here lie the Ashes of '56, skittled by Laker for next to nix. Never forgotten, sorry you thought our wicket rotten, signed "Love from the groundstaff". The second line refers to the Australian complaints that the grass had been shaved off the Old Trafford wicket to help the England spinners.

Test series summary

First Test: Trent Bridge

Second Test: Lord's

Third Test: Headingley

Fourth Test: Old Trafford

Fifth Test: The Oval

Annual reviews