Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

Jack’s own preference would have been to stay with his friends at the local secondary modern school instead of setting out each day on a two-bus journey to Bolton. But, for all the inconvenience of the travel, the new school brought its compensations, especially in sport. The master in charge of cricket was Ron Booth, a Yorkshireman, who quickly spotted that the pint-sized newcomer had a talent for the game. Jack won his Junior Eleven colours in 1945 and the next year he scored 66 in the Juniors’ victory over Manchester Grammar School. There were then two years in the Second Eleven with a few appearances for the First Eleven in the second summer. Though his three innings in the first team brought just 26 runs, the Boltonian wrote of him as ‘a natural cricketer who should be very successful in future years. He plays very stylishly and forcefully for his size and his catching and ground fielding are both first rate.’ Always one of the smallest members of the school sides he represented, Jack recalls one team photograph in which he had to stand on a house brick to reach the shoulders of his team-mates. But his size was no bar to winning his First Eleven colours in 1949, one of only five boys to do so. He took part in matches against other grammar schools as well as a few local club sides, and he particularly remembers that they also played Rossall, a well-known public school. ‘They said we weren’t good enough to play their first team. So we played the second team and generally gave them a good hammering!’ This year the Boltonian was able to record: ‘His stroke play is a delight to watch and he excels against slow bowling.’ However, Jack’s overall batting record remained modest, 194 runs at 16.17, with a top score of 48 not out against R.J.Heslop’s XI giving him third place in the averages. But, as in later life, it was his fielding that set him apart. ‘I’ve still got a book that I was given for the fielding prize, a book with the school crest on it.’ This prized possession bears a suitable inscription in the headmaster’s writing: ‘Allison Fielding Prize. ‘Don’t call him Little John’ 11 Jack’s fielding was always prized, even in 1949.