Clem Hill's Reminiscences

We think we were deprived of victory in one of the four drawn matches through faulty umpiring. 31 It was in the first Test at Nottingham. Australia made 252 in the first innings, and declared with eight for 230 in the second. England, having made 193 in their first visit to the wickets, had to compile 290 on the third day. Howell started off well by clean bowling Grace and Jackson with beautiful off breaks. Fry was caught by Jones off Trumble. I mentioned in an earlier article that Gunn had retired from international cricket. He returned for this match. Jones knocked his stump flying. It looked as if we had the Englishmen beaten. When Ranjitsinhji was 30 he was, in our opinion, run out. Laver, who was fielding at short leg, returned the ball underhand, and the wicket-keeper had the bails off with Ranji well out of his ground. The Indian was so certain about it that he continued to jog along towards the grandstand. To the surprise of all of us, the English umpire called out to him, ‘You’re not out.’ He came back and went on to make 93 not out of a total of seven for 155. It was not the runs that he made, but the time he took to make them. England escaped with a draw. They had only three bowlers to follow. Frank Laver was so disgusted that he went up to the umpire and said, ‘You are a cheat.’ We reported our dissatisfaction to the MCC, and a special meeting was held. Lord Harris, a fine type of sportsman, presided. Lord Hawke said, ‘What a funny thing; our fellows are also complaining of his bad decisions. Lord Harris said, ‘Mr Darling, it is quite evident that this man is incompetent; he will not umpire at any more of your matches.’ It was this same umpire who, I was told, jumped for joy in giving me out when Johnny Tyldesley threw down my wicket in this same match. Having been a former player, he could not restrain himself. I was well out. Grace sprang a surprise on us in this match. Darling had declared our innings closed at the luncheon adjournment. We wanted all the time for play possible as we hoped to get the Englishmen out and thus be credited with a win. We found that, instead of sending his men in to bat at the end of the adjournment, Grace claimed another 10 minutes for rolling the wicket. We protested, but he was right. Ball lodged in breast pocket In some quarters the bowling of Noble and Jones was doubted in the early part of the tour, but I am certain that neither of them threw the ball. The only time Jones ever threw was when he was returning the ball to the wicket after a short run. He always bowled it in from the outfield, as he could bowl faster than he could throw. Writing of Jones reminds me of the unusual way in which he was dismissed in Melbourne. The ball found a resting place in the breast pocket of his shirt. He took it out and handed it to the wicket-keeper. The umpire then gave him out for His Second English Tour 45 31 A very direct remark by the standards of the time.