Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

cover and I had to do all the chasing. And he ran me out a few times. If Washy said “Run”, you ran!’ With five wicket-keepers at one time on the staff, Jack remembers the seasons when Jack Jordan was first choice. ‘He was from Burnley, an excellent wicket-keeper, and he used to be stood up close to the stumps and, just as the bowler was coming up to bowl, you could see his eyes – they wouldn’t be looking where the ball should be coming from. He’d be glancing at Cyril. What he was expecting I don’t know, but he hardly took his eyes off Cyril. Whether he lived in fear of him, I don’t know – some people certainly did!’ Man management, at which Jack would later excel, was an alien concept to Washbrook. In 1956 Roy Tattersall was challenging Glamorgan’s Don Shepherd in the race to 100 first-class wickets. Both were in the nineties – then Roy was dropped. ‘We had a match at Liverpool. They put a team sheet up and my name wasn’t on it. I said to Stan Worthington, “Can you tell me why I’m not playing tomorrow?” He said, “Ours is not to reason why. Ours is but to do and die.” I was dumbfounded – I’d taken most wickets in the country. He said, “I can’t explain it to you.”’ Left out for eight matches, Roy found hurtful rumours circulating that he had been misbehaving, rumours that led to a minute-book entry that he had been omitted ‘simply because he was temporarily out of form and the sub-committee felt that, in omitting him and playing another in his place, they were strengthening the side.’ A word from Washbrook might have been expected, but none was forthcoming. ‘You couldn’t consult anybody,’ Roy says. ‘Even with the captain you had to be very careful what you said, because obviously you were hoping for a benefit.’ The years of Washbrook’s captaincy coincided with continuing disappointment in the Championship: tenth, ninth, second, sixth, seventh, fifth. Second place in 1956 owed much to Geoff Edrich, who had deputised as captain in ten matches and managed to lead the side to six of its twelve victories. This was also a time of continuing transition in the batting line-up. After his successful captaincy in 1956, Edrich moved on to devote his leadership skills to the Second Eleven. At the end of the following summer Ikin, injured for most of 1956, retired. By now a place had been found for Jack Dyson, who never quite fulfilled Washbrook’s high hopes ‘You’re a professional cricketer now’ 33