Cricket 1900

“ Together joined in Cricket’« manly toil.”— Byron. No. 5 5 4 . VO L. * J X THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1900 PKIOB Sd. A C H A T A B O U T M R . F . S J A C K S O N . From time to time in the history of the game there have been found men who w ithout any previous practice in small matches could take their place in a first- class team and play a magnificent innings. Such were M r. W . H . Patterson and the H on. Alfred Lyttelton, and now M r. Jackson has shown b y his splendid score of 134 fur the Gentlemen against the Players at Scarborough the other day that a little practice at the nets is all that he requires to bring himself into form . The remarkable thing about this innings was that it was not played against bowlers with a moderate reputation, but against mon who had vastly distinguished themselves on wickets which helped th em ; and the wicket at Scar­ borough was greatly in favour of the bowlers. N o doubt the secret of M r. i'y Jackson’s great success as a crick- f B eter lies in his own confidence. There never was a bowler brought v before the public of whom he was afraid under any conceivable cir­ cumstances. W hen other men have been pointing out that a bowler does this and that, and has a wicket to suit him down to the ground, M r. Jackson cannot be convinced that there is no way of playing him , and more often than not he has shown that his confidence was not misplaced. The Australian as well as B oglish bowlers have often had occasion to find that he does not know what nervousness is, and there is not a bowler living who does not feel immensely relieved when he has been fortunate enough to dispose of him. It is but natural that a man like this should prefer to play what is known as “ a forcing gam e.” It is in his nature to attack rather than to defend, and although he was never a hitter in the accepted sense of the word, he has always been a man whose b at met the hall. Even when he is walking from the pavilion to take his place at the wicket it is easy to see that he does not mean to go back again in a h u n y ; and it is astonishing how , as soon as he begins to play the bow ling, he immediately seem to give a feeling of confidence to the spectators that he w ill play it for a long time before he is out. There are very many men who keep a spectator on tenterhooks even when they are in the middle of a long innings, for they never seem settled ; it is only the few who manage to convince their friends that, unless an extraordinary accident happens, they will make runs ; and M r. Jackson is one of them . There are some people who think that MR. F. S. JACKSON. [FromaPhotoby HawkinsandCoBrighton.) he never played better cricket than when he was in the Cambridge eleven, but if he has since that time lost something in prettiness of style, he has certainly gained in power, and there are m any who think that he is not yet at the top of his game. B e that as it m ay, no England eleven is anything like complete w ithout him , and when he decided not to go to Australia w ith the last team which left England, everybody felt that the team was not by any means as strong as it would have been if he had been included in i t ; for everybody recognised that he was just the man for Australia. A s a bowler he has had his ups and downs. A t times he has been one of the most valuable bowlers that any side could have, while even at his worst he has been very useful indeed. The same confidence which makes him such a dan­ gerous batsman, makes him a bowler to be watched very carefully, for it is quite certain that he never bow ls a ball w ith­ out feeling that he has a fair chance of b agging his man. A s a field he is safe and active. H e often wears a silk muffler loosely tied round his neck when" fielding, and this some­ how or other gives him the appear­ ance of a man who means business. Cricketers as a body know that he is one of the fairest opponents in the world, and some of them are inclined to think that he is almost quixotically conscientious. W hen, for instance, ia one of the Y o rk ­ shire matches a ball was hit to him very low down, and was apparently caught before it touched the ground, there were men on his own side who thought that he was w rong in saying that he had not caught the ball until it touched the ground, and that the batsman must not be allowed to go out, although he had on a prompt appeal been given out b y the umpire. They said that it was the fortune of war, and that the batsman ought to go. It is quite safe to say that if Mr. Jackson were captain of the fielding side when a batsman was given out for leaving his ground under a misapprehension, the batsman would not retire to the pavilion unless he was as obstinate as a mule and refused to listen to reason. One cannot help thinking that it would do no harm to the game if there were a little more of this conscientiousness about - call it quixotic if you will. From time to time there have been rumours that M r. Jackson would stand as a Conservative candidate for Parliament, of which his father has been for so long a distinguished Member. It is pretty certain that it would require a very strong Liberal candidate to defeat him , for Yorkshiremen are sportsmen to a man, and appreciate a sportsman when they find him .— W .A .B .