Tiny, historic and symbolic

"Is that it," a woman with a Liverpudlian accent squeaks. "It's tiny!" She's not looking at Adelaide Oval's square boundaries, which are also surprisingly short, but the symbolic trophy of the five-Test series that currently sits in the South Australia Museum.

The size of the Ashes urn is shocking, even for people on a repeat viewing. If it wasn't caged in glass it could be blown over by a sneeze. As tall as half a plastic pen, it sits under the glare of an alert security guard and the gaze of fortunate cricket lovers, their partners and other tag-a-longs. In an eventful life it has caused a lot of fuss and it is creating more after being allowed on holiday by the Marylebone Cricket Club guardians.

As England attempt to retain the larger, more sparkly crystal Ashes Trophy that is also on show in the museum, the urn will almost shadow the squad as it is displayed in most of Australia's state capital cities. Adelaide floats in cricket history - The Bradman Collection is in the state library and the Adelaide Oval Museum is a must during lunch at the Test - and is the best place apart from Lord's to view the magnificent and priceless piece.

Visitors to the room were almost immediately drawn to the ornament resting across the hall from an impressive showing of Aboriginal artifacts. "The Ashes Urn, c 1882," read the description plaque. "Ceramic with wooden base. Marylebone Cricket Club collection." It is understated but not undervalued.

"So that's ours then," another England tourist says. Not exactly. Had the urn not been donated to MCC it could have been free to travel back and forth with the series-winning team. However, it remains the symbol of Australia-England superiority and stays safely in the Lord's museum. In 1988 it left England for the first time to be part of Australia's bi-centennial celebrations, but a trip to accompany the previous tour in 2002-03 was cancelled when an x-ray revealed a crack. By that stage the Australian team had tired of waiting for the real prize and after claiming the replica for the seventh consecutive time in 2001 Colin Miller and Ricky Ponting burned three bails in a tray of kerosene to form their own version. The second batch of ashes live with Miller and it is hoped he can remember the difference between wood and cigarette remnants.

A copy of the Sporting Times with the short obituary of the death of English cricket is part of the collection and offers another surprise. It is not a shouting headline but a classified on the same page as racing prices for the Greater Yorkshire Handicap. Below the advertisement is a snippet about sailors being given flint and steel weapons to use on an "armoured train" out of Baker Street. Readers in a rush could easily have missed one of cricket's most memorable passages.

The scorebook from the 1882 game at The Oval, which England lost by seven runs when dismissed for 77, is difficult to read but the flowing running writing of "Spofforth" stands out repeatedly in the dismissals section. The figures show Fred 'The Demon' Spofforth collected 7 for 46 with 18 maidens from 147 balls, sealing Australia's first win in England.

Names of the players in both sides are framed next to a scorecard of the Test and "WG Grace" is scrawled lightly at the top of England's list. Even if they are scribbles from a team-sheet and not original signatures it is a thrill to view the pencil marks of such treasured names.

The collection is large enough to cover the walls of the exhibition room and carries bats from Grace and Billy Murdoch and the velvet bag that Ivo Bligh was given to carry the Ashes. Despite the interest of the other items, the urn is the drawcard. The cork in the top has worn and the writing on the front needs a magnifying glass, but this is a piece of art that plays significantly above its tiny weight.