At last, England can celebrate. Capping a seven-week contest that gripped the nation, the English team reclaimed the Ashes -- a 123-year-old cricket competition -- by beating world champion Australia 2-1 in the five-match series.
Watched live on Monday by 24,000 cheering supporters at The Oval cricket ground in south London and millions more on television, England held off Australia on the final day to force a draw and win cricket's prized urn for the first time since the 1986-'87 series.
As celebrations broke out across the country, Queen Elizabeth II sent her congratulations to the England players for their "magnificent achievement of regaining the Ashes."
"This has been a truly memorable series and both sides can take credit for giving us all such a wonderfully exciting and entertaining summer of cricket at its best," she said.
A victory rally was to be held in Trafalgar Square yesterday. Tens of thousands of people were expected to celebrate the country's biggest sporting achievement since England won soccer's World Cup in 1966 and the Rugby World Cup in 2003.
In a country where soccer dominates, cricket has been in decline in the UK in recent years. But this summer's compelling matches and victory over the usually invincible Australians has given the sport an injection of new life.
"It has brought cricket alive in Britain and even around the world. And what's more the players have been great sporting role models for kids. The Ashes victory is great for the sport," said David Folb, chairman of the Lashings Cricket Club, a celebrity team.
The series has enthralled England and Australia all summer. British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq have been watching the matches.
Florists have reported an upsurge in flower sales to husbands feeling guilty at watching cricket all day long.
At The Oval, fans clambered onto rooftops and hung off cherry pickers to catch a glimpse of the action. Pubs screening the match were packed as English fans roared their team home and some of the thousands of Australians living in London drowned their sorrows.
Even the celebrities could not stay away.
Movie star Hugh Grant bit his nails as the English battled to defeat their favorite enemies on the fifth and final day of the fifth and final match of the series. The final match has also been watched by Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Mick Jagger had televisions installed during his world tour to catch the action.
The Ashes refers to a mock obituary placed in the Sporting Times newspaper in 1882 after Australia upset all the odds to beat England, reading, "In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."
Every couple of years England and Australia do battle for a tiny urn said to contain some wooden ashes, and the Australians, who excel at most sports, had not lost an Ashes series in 19 years.
The Aussies, who held a combined 29-9 margin of Test victories over England during the past 16 years, arrived boasting they would win this series 5-0.
Australia won the first match, but since then the English eclipsed their old foes with aggressive, enterprising cricket and were 2-1 up going into the last match, which began on Thursday.
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