The Ashes which has, for over a hundred years, symbolised the contest for cricketing supremacy between England and Australia, may not in fact be the ashes of a bail used in a game played between the two countries in the 1880s. The world of cricket has been told that this century old story was the result of a ``mis-hearing'' and that the terracotta urn, which is ``The Ashes'', contains not the charred remains of a wooden bail, but that of a lady's veil.

As cricket loses one story, it gets an off-the-field romantic saga. Octogenarian Rosemary, Dowager Countess of Darnley claims that her mother-in-law Florence Morphy, had told her that the urn contained the ashes of a veil that she was wearing when watching thevisiting England side play in Melbourne in 1883. She burnt her veil to get the attention of the England Captain and her future husband, Ivo Blight.

The Countess told The Evening Standard newspaper: ``My mother-in-law told me the Ashes were a burnt veil she wore while Ivo was playing.''

The story of ``the Ashes'' began after England was defeated by Australia on English soil at the Oval in August 1882. Something that the England players and fans have become rather accustomed to of late. The British press of the day described the 1882 event as the death of English cricket. An obituary in The Sporting Life read: ``In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket which died at the Oval, 29th August 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. N.B. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.''

``The Ashes'', the symbolic trophy as it was, actually came into existence the following year when England went to Australia. The English captain, Ivo Blight,later Lord Darnley, joked that he had come to reclaim the ashes. Accepted cricketing folklore says that Bligh was presented with the ashes, by a group of Melbourne women, including his future wife Morphy, after his team had taken a 2-1 lead in the series. The ashes were said to be those of a bail or a stump used during the match.

The Dowager Countess, who has sent Britain's cricketing world into a tizzy, has been too ill to make any comment. Her son, the present Lord Darnley, however, said that while the story is true there was no way of resolving the issue, and that other stories about the origin of the Ashes had been told in his family.

He said, ``I can remember asking my uncle about it and he said that grandfather had said the ashes were probably from something that burned quite quickly. So it would have been something flimsy. ... It was something burned by the women, and I think it was just a way of fulfilling a joke that had started.''

Stephen Green, the curator of the Lord's Museum said, ``I mustadmit that veil does sound like bail .. but I have never heard this story before ...''