Famous Cricketers No 89 - F.S.Jackson

Leading the University in 1892 the runs began to rattle off Jackson’s bat. Fifties in each innings of the opening match of the season against C.I.Thornton’s XI, a new career best 84 against MCC a fortnight later. 80 wickets in the season at 18.68 apiece tell their own story. Once again he joined the Gentlemen at the Oval. In October 1892 Jackson boarded the P. & O. steamer Kaiser-I-Hind , embarking on what would turn out to be his only overseas tour. Ahead of Lord Hawke’s team of fourteen amateurs lay a gruelling 23-match tour of Ceylon and the Indian sub-continent. Only 4 of the matches were of first-class status, those against the Parsis, All India, and the Bombay Presidency, for which Jackson was unavailable because of illness. In all matches Jackson was second in the batting averages behind A.J.L.Hill (697 runs at 30.30) and third in the bowling lists (69 wickets at 10.39). The tour ended in March on the North West Frontier In late April Jackson was back in England, scoring an imperious 111 for Leighton at Westbury. It was as if experience of the mat and the dry, dusty Indian wickets had completed his education in batsmanship. His reputation, hitherto as a good-looking, orthodox bat who often flattered to deceive, was confounded in 1893. On 27th April he proceeded to his B.A. degree in the Trinity Senate House. Now opening the Cambridge batting he began the first-class season with 80 against Thornton’s Team. A few days later playing for Trinity against Jesus College he scored 146. It was only a matter of time before he went to three figures in a major match. It happened at the end of May against MCC at Cambridge, in his 56th first-class match. One milestone achieved, he scored a 123 in his next innings, this time against Surrey, Tom Richardson, W.H.Lockwood, et al. And while his batting flowed, his bowling, seam up, mean, hitting the bat hard, was claiming regular wickets. In July Jackson was summoned to Lord’s to play for England against the Australians. Coming to the wicket at 31 for 2, either side of luncheon on Monday 17th, Jackson cemented his place in the England side. He survived a chance at 50, scoring 13 fours in his 91 out of 137 runs scored while he was at the wicket. In the Second Test, a month later at the Oval, batting at seven in the order, he scored 103 in 135 minutes against a tiring Australian attack. Jackson was the first man to go to his hundred in Test cricket with a hit over the boundary rope. Invited to Manchester to play in the Third Test, Jackson declined, Yorkshire needed him at Hove, where the County of the Broad Acres duly clinched the Championship. 1894 was a wet, dismal season. For Jackson, without the stimulus of the Cambridge captaincy, or the prospect of Test cricket, the new season had about it the air of the morning after the Lord Mayor’s Procession. Appointed Vice-Captain of Yorkshire, his form was variable. In a powerful Yorkshire side his bowling was surplus to requirements for long periods, and rain-affected wickets prevented his batting from flourishing. Nevertheless, in late May he blazed 131 against Sussex in 140 minutes, and in the space of a golden week in early July, hit a chanceless 145 in almost even time against Nottinghamshire, before bowling the Gentlemen to an innings victory over the Players at Lord’s. In this latter match he and Sammy Woods bowled unchanged through two innings, Jackson claiming 5 for 36 and 7 for 41. That winter A.E.Stoddart was taking a team to Australia, and Lord Hawke one to North America. Jackson would have been a welcome addition to either party. In the end he deferred to his commitments in England, believing there would be other opportunities to tour. Jackson opened the 1895 season with 122 in 135 minutes at Fenner’s. It was to be his only three- figure score of the year. In mid-season he scored consistently, his bowling was as sharp as ever. In 5