Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

57 idea how it got into print for there is no foundation for it.’ 62 A jocular aside from Gilligan at one of the closing dinners may have started this rumour – something along the lines of how he would have loved to have the services of the Glamorgan seamer back in the Sussex side. But regardless of what the London newspapers published, the truth of the matter was that Jack was a Glamorgan player. When the season began, Lady Luck did not appear to be on Jack’s side when, in the match with Yorkshire at the Arms Park, he was the subject of a rather dubious caught-and-bowled decision as the home side desperately tried to stave off the follow-on. Seven runs were needed with three wickets still to fall when Jack spliced a ball back towards Emmott Robinson. The bowler dived forward in his follow through and duly scooped up the ball, although many thought that it had been held on the bounce. In his usual fashion, Jack asked Robinson if he had caught it, and after the Tyke had said yes, he headed back to the Cardiff pavilion with a load of boos echoing around the ground as local supporters vented their feelings. It proved to be a turning point; when the follow-on was enforced, and Glamorgan slipped to defeat. A few days later, at The Oval, Jack damaged the muscles in his right forearm during the match with Surrey. As ever, he was optimistic that it was just a minor strain and a reaction to his exertions on the subcontinent during the winter. Jack duly headed north for the next game against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, but despite claiming the first four wickets, he struggled in his second and third spells, besides spilling a couple of chances in the field, including dropping a straightforward chance from Jim Hutchinson who went on to post an assured century. After some further relatively innocuous spells, a specialist in Cardiff advised him to miss a couple of matches and undergo intensive physiotherapy. It wasn’t just the Glamorgan selectors who were keeping a close eye on Jack’s injury, as the England selectors were also monitoring his recovery. Gilligan’s notes to the selectors had included a string of favourable comments about Jack’s bowling and his persona and in late May, Jack received a letter from H.D.G.Leveson Gower, England’s chairman of selectors, inviting him to the Scarborough Festival in early September to play for the Players against the Gentlemen, and in the following match between C.I.Thornton’s XI and a side comprising the players who would be going on England’s winter tour to South Africa. Shortly afterwards, Leveson Gower brought his side to Cardiff to play Glamorgan so with a possible England cap looming on the horizon, Jack was eager to show to the chairman that he was making a swift recovery. He duly returned to action in this friendly match and received further praise for his efforts. But any thoughts he held of impressing the selectors with a series of fine returns were literally dampened by the weather as time and again in the course of the next two months, the Welsh county enjoyed bad luck with the conditions, besides seeing two contests – against Rain and rumours 62 Western Mail, 5 April 1927.