Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

luck is going to run out some time. Maybe it will be this game against Kent!’ Jack is not a man given to suspicions, but he was receptive to them now. ‘There was a Kent umpire – we didn’t think that was a good omen.’ Arthur Fagg was on the Test panel at the time, but might he still have a leaning towards the county for whom he had played over 400 matches? The initial portents were not reassuring. The second ball of the match, from John Dye, cannoned into Wood’s pads and Fagg’s finger was raised. Back in the pavilion Jack remembers the opener’s return. ‘Barry came in and said he’d hit it and there was a big red mark on the edge of his bat. Then he gave one against Harry Pilling that everyone thought was a bit high. He’s only five foot two anyway, but Harry thought it was high!’ Sixty-six from Clive Lloyd was again the mainstay of the innings, but it took some muscular slogs from Simmons and Hughes, with 39 added in the last four overs, to lift Lancashire to 224 for seven. England opener Brian Luckhurst fell immediately to Lever and, with four men out for 68, the initiative was with Lancashire. But Kent skipper Asif Iqbal remained cool, his classical strokes unfurling to dominate partnerships with Alan Knott, John ‘A great catch to end a great innings’ 105 Jack leads out his team at Lord’s in the 1971 Gillette final, when Lancashire won by 24 runs.