Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

bowler, who was now a tireless worker for the Red Rose cause. Refusing to take no for an answer, Booth pleaded for a further chance to persuade the former captain to return. ‘Arthur asked to come and see me. He stayed as a family friend overnight. He said the club were desperate and had nobody.’ Bob Barber listened to Booth’s entreaty and then told him that the man for whom Lancashire were searching was already at Old Trafford. ‘I told him they were crazy! That in my view Jackie would be ideal for putting the club back on the rails if they really wanted that. I believe at the time we spoke there was a risk that he would not be retained! Crazy people!’ What was it that prompted Barber to champion Jack’s cause as skipper? Though the governance of the club was improving, he felt there had long been a lack of integrity around Old Trafford, with its history of internecine feuding in committee. ‘People of integrity had to step up to the plate. Jack had integrity. He was a good enough player to lead from the front on the field and a man of sufficient principle to set an example off the field.’ February arrived with no decision made when Jack took a call from Jack Wood, Secretary at Old Trafford. ‘We’ve just had a committee meeting and they want you to take the captaincy on a caretaker basis while they look for somebody else,’ he was told. There had been few previous hints. ‘Of course I was overjoyed,’ Jack now says. ‘Whether it was for one month or two months, it was a great privilege to be captain of your county. I mean … the chance of playing for England and things like that had long since gone, so that was the ultimate aim.’ Jack turned to Florence to share his elation. ‘And what do you think she said? She said, “You’ll have to have all your teeth out.” I said, “What do you mean?” At the time I had about three or four at the top and about five at the bottom – they were ready to come out. She said, “Well you can’t be doing television interviews with teeth like that!”’ But the media could not wait for a dental appointment. ‘By the time I’d got all my new teeth, I’d done all my television interviews. But I still suffered all the pain.’ With hindsight Jack was the logical short-term answer to Lancashire’s distress call. Yet Jack Wood’s call had come as a surprise. ‘When I look back maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so surprised. But, having been on the staff since 1955, you learn a bit about the workings of the club, the committee and the way they ‘You’ll have to have all your teeth out’ 61