{"id":238708,"date":"2025-07-05T00:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238708\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T00:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:03:12","slug":"ashley-giles-the-king-of-spain-and-his-royal-mug-at-warwickshire-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238708\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Giles the King of Spain and His Royal Mug at Warwickshire Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>The original piece of the \u2018Ashley Giles King of Spain\u2019 mug at the Warwickshire CCC Museum (Image: Rohan Chowdhury)<\/p>\n

Edgbaston, Birmingham<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you visit the Warwickshire Cricket Museum at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, it feels like a walk through a treasure trove. Rich in history, tales unknown to many are preserved over the years under one roof. Each item in the museum gives you a sense of heritage \u2014 worn out over time, some date back to 1882, when the club was formed. Some of them look older and yet, they shine bright with the pride of a storied past and cricketing royalty.<\/p>\n

From the portraits of Charles Burgess<\/strong><\/a> or C.B. Fry\u2019s team to the oldest school championship trophy, or Bob Willis\u2019 last blazer for Warwickshire \u2014 there are precious exhibits. One can find the bat used by Brian Lara when he made 501 not out for the county and a lot more.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s something which might at first glance seem completely out of place \u2014 absolutely no royal look \u2014 but perhaps the most \u2018royal\u2019 of them all.<\/p>\n

Phil Britt, the museum curator, in the middle of the museum tour, stopped beside a glass cabinet and pointed at an array of three ceramic mugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the last one of the original batch. The Ashley Giles King of Spain mugs,\u201d said Britt, pointing at the first one in line.<\/p>\n

Ashley Giles, the former England spinner, spent 14 years of his first-class career at Warwickshire CCC. For those who don\u2019t know much about Giles, he was a left-arm orthodox bowler and played 54 Tests and 62 ODIs for England.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The entrance of the Warwickshire CCC Museum (Image: Rohan Chowdhury)<\/p>\n

\u201cAshley Giles, who is now the Chief Executive of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, played for Warwickshire for most of his professional career, and over a period of time people nicknamed him the King of Spin,\u201d said Britt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich was\u2026 a lot of people never believed he spun the ball in his life,\u201d he added with a grin. Classic British humour.
But what\u2019s the story behind His Majesty Giles?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy who was running the club shop once thought of getting some mugs made and sent off an order with the artworks done as \u2018Ashley Giles King of Spin\u2019, and the mug makers thought it said \u2018King of Spain\u2019 and got the samples printed and sent it back,\u201d explained Britt.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Inside the Kabin with Yorkshire County Cricket Club Supporters Association<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those originals. Though later the batch was printed correctly as \u2018Spin\u2019, people saw these and they were like \u2018ha ha ha\u2019,\u201d he recalled of the time back in 2001.<\/p>\n

But the humour didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce this became famous, he deliberately got some of these made as \u2018King of Spain\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spin-offs?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, \u2018Spain-offs\u2019,\u201d he laughed. Several other designs were made with pictures of Ashley and the then-actual King of Spain, Juan Carlos I., \u2018King of Spain, Governor of Australia\u2019 \u2013 said some of the designs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A \u2018Spain-Off\u2019 mug (Image: Rohan Chowdhury)<\/p>\n

Now, the museum has the one from the original batch that was printed mistakenly, and a few \u2018Spain-offs\u2019 \u2014 and the story gets better.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, yesterday (July 2nd), Ashley came here,\u201d said Britt.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he came on the opening day of the Test and came to visit us and he was surprised to see the mug and asked, \u2018Oh! Is that an original?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I said I was told it\u2019s an original one, and I said that to him and asked whether it was worth much,\u201d Britt continued.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Oh! It\u2019s worth a massive amount to me,\u2019 \u2014 he said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018That\u2019s yours, Ashley\u2019 \u2014 we said to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the Edgbaston Museum will keep the mugs labelled as \u2018Owned by Ashley Giles\u2019.<\/p>\n

Britt himself played his share of club cricket until he was 60 and represented Dorridge Cricket Club in the Birmingham League. He mentioned how Worcestershire and Warwickshire are real rivals on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Ashley is in charge of Worcestershire \u2014 a real rival county \u2014 and Worcestershire and Warwickshire are at each other\u2019s throats on the cricket field, we\u2019ll give it to him because he\u2019s an ex-Warwickshire player,\u201d concluded Britt, a smile spreading across his face.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Phil Britt, the curator at Warwickshire CCC Museum (Image: Rohan Chowdhury)<\/p>\n

Well, just a note for the readers, Ashley Giles is the only bowler to get Sachin Tendulkar stumped in test cricket \u2013 way back in 2001, the same year he was \u2018coronated\u2019.<\/p>\n

For more such features, follow RevSportz<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The original piece of the \u2018Ashley Giles King of Spain\u2019 mug at the Warwickshire CCC Museum (Image: Rohan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[92886,92887,92888,86548,2000,299,104,92889],"class_list":{"0":"post-238708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-ashley-giles","9":"tag-ashley-giles-king-of-spain","10":"tag-edgbaston-cricket-ground","11":"tag-edgbaston-test","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-spain","15":"tag-warwickshire-county-cricket-club"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114797701195920315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}