Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

25 Sydney, Signor Verdi had been the Pirate King in a production of The Pirates of Penzance . He subsequently formed his own opera company, but this proved short-lived as he soon became insolvent. However, his friends rallied round and his popularity led to a number of other highly successful engagements in Brisbane and Melbourne. 19 In the early 1890s William Green travelled to Britain with his wife Kate to work and teach at Covent Garden. They settled in London, living at various times in Camden Town, Fulham and Shepherd’s Bush. Kate and William had six children, with the eldest being Santa Lorenza who was born in July 1896. Sadly, Jack never got to meet the illustrious William Green, as he died at Hammersmith in December 1915. Jack had met Santa when he was completing his recuperation after the war. With his keen interest in magic tricks, he had attended several shows and had met up with Santa’s younger brother who himself was a renowned illusionist, often appearing on stage as the man who apparently disappeared in a box on stage, only to re-appear at the back of the audience at the end of the performance. He was also a performer of card tricks, and as an enthusiastic trickster himself, Jack was fascinated by his new pal’s sleight of hand. Through this friendship, Jack met and subsequently fell in love with Santa, an attractive and quite striking young lady with jet black hair. The pair married in 1919, as we have seen, with their first home being in the part of Shoreham on the right bank of the River Adur known as Bungalow Town, primarily because of the long rows of single-storey wooden structures which lined the beach-side roads. It was quite a bohemian area, with a film studio nearby and many theatrical types and socialites living there. 20 Jack had some important decisions to make in 1921 and, after talking to a couple of fellow professionals who had been impressed by Glamorgan’s victory at the Arms Park, he made contact with Welsh officials. Since their fairy-tale start, the club had Debut for Sussex Santa, Jack’s first wife, at their home at Shoreham Beach. 19 He appeared in the insolvency court in Brisbane in December 1883 and in the citation he mentions gambling debts and failed attempts at borrowing money for his predicament. See http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/3467761 and http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/3425160. 20 Neb Wolters, Bungalow Town:Theatre and Film Colony , author, 1985. These days the area is usually known as Shoreham Beach.