Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

136 Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the generous and willing assistance of a number of Jack’s relatives and former colleagues. In particular, I would like to thank Nick Mercer, Adrian Mercer, Brian Lawrence, Amanda Whitfield, Peggy Standing, Gwenda Dennis, Santa Parker, Jan Herlihy, Richard Mercer, Melissa Mercer, Mark Mercer, Wendy Mercer, Tony Mercer, Clifford Mercer and Bill Barrett, as well as Andrew Radd and Maurice Kent of Northamptonshire C.C.C., plus Rob Boddie, Hugh Griffiths and Nicholas Sharp from Sussex C.C.C. Various members of the Former Players’ Associations of both Glamorgan C.C.C. and Northamptonshire C.C.C., as well as several long-serving first-class umpires and scorers, provided useful recollections. My warmest thanks to Katrina Coopey, Tony Davidson and their colleagues in the Local Studies Department at Cardiff Central Library for unfettered access to a variety of newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s. Similarly, I’m grateful to the staff at Hove Library for providing access to their newspaper records, as well as to Neil Young, Roderick Suddaby and their colleagues at the Imperial War Museum, who were all especially helpful in providing answers to my questions about Jack’s military career. Justin Saddington and other staff at the National Army Museum, plus the archivists at the Royal Sussex Regiment’s museum in Eastbourne also kindly provided other most useful information. Matthew Engel also provided information based on his research on Northamptonshire cricket, whilst David Jeater was a most supportive and cheerful editor of this contribution to the series. Roger Mann has helped with photographs from his collection; Philip Bailey has contributed key pieces of statistical information. Richard Shaw and his colleagues in Leeds have designed, typeset and printed the book; Ray Greenall and David Pracy have brought their proofreading skills to bear on the final drafts. Finally, my thanks to Robert Croft – another man who took over 1,000 first-class wickets for Glamorgan – for writing the foreword. A.K.H.