Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

below with a huge sash window that had to be hauled up to let in the light. ‘We called it “The Dogs’ Home”. You never ventured upstairs, and you didn’t speak to anyone unless you were spoken to.’ For net practice the juniors were expected to reach the ground well before the capped players put in an appearance, and they would do a disproportionate share of the bowling. ‘One or two of the seniors did treat you as though you were servants,’ Jack remembers. ‘They’d go out with their pads on, not intending to take part in the bowling. I never saw Cyril Washbrook bowl a ball in the nets, probably Winston Place the same.’ For the young professionals, there were occasional twelfth-man duties as well being ‘on the dollies’, or ‘OTD’ as it would appear on team sheets to indicate the two players who had been assigned to help man the score box. And they spent long hours bowling at members who had booked net practice. ‘They’d ring up Stan Worthington and book an hour’s net and you’d have to bowl at them. They’d put sixpence or a shilling on their stumps, but they didn’t just defend their stumps with the bat, they defended them with their pads as well. You probably ended up with 50 lbws but not a penny in your pocket!’ Jack was chosen for the Second Eleven’s first match, against Warwickshire on the GEC Ground at Coventry, which began on 18 May 1955. With two of the side’s most regular players, batsman Sid Smith and leg-spinner Tommy Greenhough having a run in the first team, the chosen side, in batting order, read: P.Barcroft, K.Bowling, G.Pullar, J.D.Bond, R.Collins, M.G.Rhodes (captain), G.Blight, F.D.Parr, J.Wood, F.Goodwin, F.Moore. Peter Barcroft, Ken Bowling and Gerry Blight, as batsmen, and leg-break bowler JimWood were four of the many young cricketers who were retained on the staff for a few seasons without breaking into the first-class game, but Geoff Pullar, still an amateur, was destined for Test cricket, while Roy Collins, who was to become a good friend of Jack’s, would also win his county cap. Frank Parr, once highly rated as a wicket-keeper, had been displaced from the senior team the previous summer, while Fred Goodwin, a Manchester United half-back, and Freddie Moore were two quick bowlers taken onto the staff in the quest to find an opening partner for Brian Statham. Captaining the side was Michael Rhodes, an amateur with some pretensions to being a batsman. ‘He was an ex-military man. His 26 ‘You’re a professional cricketer now’