Famous Cricketers No 63 - A.O.Jones

SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St County Championship 18 33 2 730 118 23.54 1 5 23 - Other Notts matches 1 2 0 11 11 5.50 - - 1 - Other matches 1 2 1 34 32* 34.00 - - 1 - Season 20 37 3 765 118 22.50 1 5 25 - Career 55 94 8 1411 118 16.40 1 5 59 - Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m County Championship (5-b) 119 30 355 10 4-98 35.50 - - Career (5-b) 135 33 398 10 4-98 39.80 - - 1896 Nottinghamshire had a much more successful season, coming 6th in the Championship. Arthur Owen also had a better year. He scored a thousand runs in a season for the first time, took 30 wickets for a reasonable average, took five wickets in an innings twice and held 20 or more catches in a season for the third time. During the MCC match, he took his first caught and bowled wicket. 28 of his 333 wickets were of this type and each time it was a different batsman. In the first Championship match of the season, he batted at number 5 in both innings. Derbyshire were forced to follow on and set Nottinghamshire 122 to win. Three wickets were lost, including Shrewsbury and W.Gunn, for 11 runs. Jones and W.Flowers came together and made the runs in fine style without being separated. This was his only score of 50 or more of the season which he made when not opening. Shrewsbury had regained some of his former prowess and Arthur Owen opened the batting with him on 17 occasions during this year. The next match was against Surrey and A.O.went in at No. 1 in the second innings. Wisden says, he “played so far the best innings of his life, his 98 being in every way a magnificent exhibition of batting.” His innings contained 14 fours and lasted 165 minutes. It was the highest individual score of the match but Surrey won, largely due to their superior bowling. In June he played his only match against his old University. Shrewsbury and he put on 138 for the first wicket and were then both dismissed at the same score. The Light Blues were no match for the Notts bowlers, Richard Hardstaff taking 12 wickets for 110 runs. The University team contained W.G.Grace, jun. and Gilbert Jessop. The match was played for the benefit of Mordecai Sherwin, the veteran Notts wicket-keeper. Despite his 20 years of service, the match was not well supported and Sherwin did not receive much in the way of reward. Arthur Owen was invited to play in three representative matches this year. The first was for Midland Counties in their match with the Australians. He opened with Shrewsbury in both innings but his mentor was off form, making 0 and 1 respectively. A.O.’s success came in second wicket partnerships with William Gunn of 46 and 64. The second match was for the North of England, again versus the Australians. His main achievement was to hold catches to dismiss the Australian openers, G.Giffen and F.A.Iredale, at which point the Australians had only 13 runs on the board. This promising start was not maintained and the Australians won a low scoring match by 42 runs. The most prestigious of the three invitations was the one to play for the Gentlemen against the Players. Other than the call to Test cricket, this was the ultimate accolade for county amateurs. This match illustrates Arthur Owen’s problem when playing cricket for sides other than his county. The Gentlemen’s team contained the cream of English batting, many of whom were openers or early order batsmen;- W.G.Grace, A.E.Stoddart, K.S.Ranjitsinhji, Lionel Palairet, F.S.Jackson and Archie MacLaren. As a new comer, he had to play at No. 9 and take his chances. This was not easy for a natural opener and so he did not always have the opportunities to shine in representative matches which he did for his own county. The contrast is even more striking later in his career when he was captain of Nottinghamshire. His niche in life was to lead from the 16