Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

over had started with ten runs still needed. Jack was at the wicket with Shuttleworth. When his partner hit the third ball for six to level the scores, Jack tried in vain for the winning run and perished, leaving it to Keith Goodwin to scramble a leg bye off the last ball. This win lifted Lancashire back to second place in the table, eight points behind the team they had just beaten, but with one more match played. Meanwhile Surrey hovered ominously, a further 29 points behind but with three matches in hand. The treble was still on the cards, but rain allowed Lancashire only three points from the Middlesex match at Blackpool and a 75-run defeat at Leicester in another watery game left Lancashire 18 points behind the leaders, their sights now on the one-day titles. There had been a happier outcome when Lancashire had visited Grace Road earlier in the month for their John Player match. Once again Hughes was the hero of the hour. Coming in with eight needed from the last five balls, he struck a four and a six to extend Lancashire’s winning sequence and claim top spot in the table for the first time. The quirks of the fixture list meant that Lancashire now had two blank Sundays, but challengers with games in hand let their chances slip. When the matches on 22 August had all been played, the prospect of a Red Rose hat trick of John Player titles had moved from hope towards expectation: Played Won Tied Lost N/R Points Lancashire 14 10 0 4 0 40 Essex 15 10 0 5 0 40 Somerset 16 9 0 5 2 38 Worcestershire 14 9 0 5 0 36 Leicestershire 15 9 0 6 0 36 With a game in hand over Essex and a superior run rate over other challengers, Lancashire could make sure of the title by beating Worcestershire at Old Trafford. Fate now stepped in, decreeing that Manchester should be targeted for a torrential downpour, but both teams were determined to play and at five o’clock a ten-over contest began. It was Lancashire’s turn to skid around the field first, in ‘near farcical’ conditions, as Worcestershire, with 36 from Ron Headley, reached 77 for three. With no fielding restrictions or limit on the bowlers’ overs – Lever and Shuttleworth operated throughout – this was a good score in an era where the switch hit and the paddle sweep were still to be invented. It proved too much ‘A great catch to end a great innings’ 103