Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

62 of the season’. It had been a truly remarkable performance by Jack who, together with a couple of his colleagues, went to each of the distraught Nottinghamshire players and offered their condolences on what had just taken place. Jack’s words were welcomed by several of the Nottinghamshire players, and although it could not change the situation, he had been very gracious and kind-hearted in going out of his way to speak to them, especially as he had a long journey ahead of him, travelling up to the Scarborough Festival. 65 Swansea in 1927 was the scene of one of his most remarkable bowling performances, but the following year St Helen’s also witnessed a remarkable batting performance by Jack. It came against his former county as he shared a stand of 119 for the ninth wicket with Dai Davies when Jack was struggling with a damaged calf muscle in his left leg. Running quick singles was completely out of the question; in fact, running anything was a struggle at first as Jack opted for dour defence allowing his partner to reach a deserved century. But after Dai had reached three figures, Jack unleashed some furious blows against the Sussex bowlers as he looked to hit almost every ball he received for either four or six. His reward was a then career-best 58 with several booming boundaries. During their record-breaking stand, Dai Davies also hit a massive six off James Langridge, with the ball sailing high over the rugby stand at the Mumbles Road end, and into a coal truck standing on the railway line which in those days ran along the foreshore towards Oystermouth and the Mumbles. For a while nobody was quite sure where the ball had landed, but later it was said to have been discovered by a railwayman when the wagon was being unloaded at Craven Arms, seventy-five miles away. The ball was duly returned to the Glamorgan officials, and for several years, Dai was able to dine out on the story of his feat of hitting a ball all the way from Swansea to Shropshire! Jack also enjoyed himself with the ball at two other seaside venues during 1928. At Weston-super-Mare, he took six for 75 against Somerset, although his return could easily have included several more wickets as on at least a couple of occasions he saw the ball miss the stumps by the proverbial coat of varnish. Later in the season, he prospered at Eastbourne, taking six for 78 during a marathon bowling stint of 34.5 overs in extremely hot conditions at The Saffrons, with the temperature causing several spectators to faint. But Jack was not a bowler who only came good with the sea air in his nostrils, as he showed at the start of the 1928 season with a ten-wicket return in the victory against Worcestershire at the Arms Park and showed no ill-effects from having missed much of the pre-season practice owing to a coaching engagement on the Isle of Wight. The following week, Jack secured six wickets against both Warwickshire and Derbyshire, with the latter game at Ilkeston seeing him deliver a 32- Swansea-by-the-sea 65 Jack was good friends with several Nottinghamshire players. When they won the 1929 county title, he was invited to Nottingham to share in their celebrations.