Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

The overture was promising. On the Saturday, Lancashire, 346 for four, were moving towards their highest championship total of the season. The next day is one that Jack will never forget. The Guardian , with commendable precision, reported a gate of 27,559, ‘many of whom had never been to a cricket match before.’ Reporting some nine months later, Wisden was more inclined to guess: ‘For the first time since 1948 the gates were closed with a crowd of nearly 33,000 watching,’ its match report states, though the Almanack elsewhere admits that ‘the official figures gave the crowd as 27,000 but several more thousand stormed into Old Trafford by devious means just before the gates were closed.’ Devious means! Jack’s own recollection is of more straightforward action. ‘They stormed the gates to get in. They knocked the main gate down, the big wooden car park gate, they flattened it. Then, of course, they got into the ground. They estimated there were about 6,000 on the grass.’ There was a cloudless sky as Jack won the toss and decided to field. Yorkshire’s rock was Geoff Boycott, but for lack of support he could hardly blame team-mates. Fellow opener Doug Padgett was run out after Boycott refused his call and, later in the innings, John Woodford sacrificed his wicket to save the great man. There were some promising strokes from Sharpe and Close, but at 142 for five, three wickets fell in the same over from Shuttleworth, the first of them Boycott to a tumbling catch by Jack, described by Eric Todd in the Manchester Guardian as ‘magnificent’. There were some bitten nails as Lancashire, in need of 166, lost Engineer early then found the overs ticking by before Clive Lloyd gave the innings momentum, but after he was out at 93, it was two of Jack’s sometimes unsung heroes, Pilling and Sullivan, who finished the business, each passing 50. Writing in The Times , John Woodcock captured the emotions of the day in remembering those who had staunchly supported Lancashire through the empty years. Now they were hearing ‘the sounds that ordinarily only come from the football in the distance.’ Beside his report was a picture of Jack’s crucial catch, its caption carrying the message that it epitomised ‘the sort of fielding that has helped his team retain the John Player League title.’ Sobriety returned to Old Trafford as the championship game resumed on the Monday in front of a crowd of 10,000. Jack allowed his batsmen to pile on the runs, declaring at 430 for seven. Wood, 90 ‘They stormed the gates to get in’