Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

125 Coaching in the east and west perceptive coach – he had particular responsibility for the Second Eleven from 1950 onwards 111 – there were some Northamptonshire officials who thought that his skills were no longer required and in 1954 there was talk of him being made redundant. Some local officials had a grouse about the way he spent little of his time on a Saturday afternoon looking for local talent in the Northampton Town League. However, Jack’s post was saved by the intervention of vice-chairman Rawlins Hawtin. ‘He breathes, talks and lives cricket,’ Hawtin said, before speaking eloquently about his wise counsel and assistance to the younger players. ‘Tubby’ Vials, the county’s chairman, agreed and his casting vote won the day. The apogee of Jack’s time as Northamptonshire’s coach was 1957, when the county, led by Dennis Brookes, won 15 Championship matches and finished second in the competition. They were, though, 96 points adrift of Surrey, then still in crusher mode. Wisden attributed this success – for success it was by Northamptonshire’s standards – to ‘astute team building’ in which, as we have seen, Jack played his part. The Playfair annual referred to ‘left-arm spin’ on the county’s ‘new trend turf’, the key bowlers being Allen, Tribe and Manning, who secured 312 wickets between them. They were backed by the speed of Frank Tyson, whose bowling this year shattered Surrey at The Oval. The News Chronicle annual liked the ‘fine bowling attack’ too. Jack surely played his part in fine-tuning the talents of these fellow bowlers, but curiously no published source, including the county histories by Jim Coldham and by Matthew Engel and Andrew Radd give our subject a special role, even with the advantage of hindsight. Several players of this period have acknowledged the coaching help they received from Jack. On the other hand, Keith Andrew, who was later a leading coach nationally, told Stephen Chalke that in 1953, he was not a coach as we now know the word, although he regularly stood behind the nets, ‘wearing raincoat and trilby’ and keeping an eye on the players. Northamptonshire were an unfashionable county – fashionability has scarcely ever been on its agenda – but during the post-war years they boasted one of the professional game’s most ambitious and visionary administrators, Ken Turner. As the club’s assistant secretary from October 1949 to April 1958, Turner improved the financial reserves by building up a thriving football pool which by 1959 boasted 79,000 weekly subscribers and contributed a remarkable 60% of the county’s income. After being promoted to secretary at the start of the 1958 season, Turner set about further improving the resources at the County Ground, and during 1958 £37,000 was spent on the creation of an indoor school, which was converted into a bar and café during the summer, with a seating area above. By common consent, it was an ugly building which added to the utilitarian aspect of Wantage Road, but everyone agreed that it was a most useful facility if Northamptonshire were to groom their new talent. 111 According to Freddie Brown’s autobiography Cricket Musketeer , published by Nicholas Kaye in 1954. Dennis Brookes took over responsibility from Jack for the Second Eleven in 1960 and in that season, under Brookes’ captaincy, they took the Second Eleven Championship with some ease, winning twelve games out of 26. The side included a good scattering of players brought on under Jack’s tutelage.