Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

48 tamely swatted a ball into square-leg’s hands and without further addition Dan Sullivan became another Parker victim. Thirteen were still needed when Jack was joined by last man Frank Ryan, with Jack immediately crashing another ball from Parker to the boundary ropes. But Parker then induced Jack to edge into the wicketkeeper’s gloves as Gloucestershire recorded a rousing victory. After his sterling efforts at Swansea, Jack was promoted to number seven for the next game against Worcestershire, and he delighted the Arms Park crowd by adding 70 in the space of half an hour with young Maurice Turnbull as Glamorgan went for quick runs. Armed with the new ball, Jack then reduced the visitors to 71 for eight in another outstanding new-ball spell but, with the weather intervening, the game ended all-square. Glamorgan’s final Championship match of the summer saw reigning champions Yorkshire visit Swansea, and the Tykes duly recorded a facile victory, but not before twenty minutes of batting mayhem from Jack who struck 32 with four lusty fours and a massive six against Roy Kilner that saw the ball disappear high over the grandstand at the Mumbles Road End and the adjacent railway line, before coming to rest on the far side of the promenade. With 136 wickets to his name, it had been a wonderful summer for Jack, who was widely regarded as the most improved bowler in the County Championship. In the national bowling averages published in the press at the end of the season he was third, just behind Wilfred Rhodes. A host of accolades ensued, not least from the Wisden almanack which nominated him as one of its five Cricketers of the Year, the first Glamorgan player to be so honoured. But perhaps the most apt tribute came from ‘Nomad’ of the Western Mail , who described Jack as ‘the strong man in Glamorgan’s attack. … All through the season he has shouldered a heavy responsibility and his success is even more popular because he is such a tremendous trier.’ 50 Turning the corner 50 Western Mail , 1 September 1926. Wisden itself attributed Glamorgan’s rise in the Championship from seventeenth in 1925 to eighth in 1926 to ‘Mercer’s advance’.