Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

91 crowd, already buzzing with excitement following Turnbull’s scintillating strokeplay, cheered loudly as Jack struck his first delivery to the boundary, but he holed out at mid on shortly afterwards, leaving Trevor Every to come in and help Turnbull see Glamorgan home with two wickets to spare. But events during the next few days were a reality check for Glamorgan. First, Turnbull split the webbing on his left hand at Bristol; then, without their injured captain, Glamorgan lost at Hove and Bath, both by an innings, with the latter happening after a jaunty half-century in just forty minutes from Jack, who struck two massive sixes and five fours. Later in the month, he enjoyed further merry sprees, starting against Northamptonshire at Swansea, where he struck Vallance Jupp for successive sixes. The first sailed into the rugby grandstand and the second bounced on the roof and out into the Oystermouth Road. A few weeks later against Somerset, Jack made a whirlwind 31 in nine minutes, striking a six and five fours to dent the figures of ‘Farmer’ White who had earlier obtained five cheap wickets with his left-arm spin. In the closing weeks of the season, the chief topic of conversation was MCC’s tour to Australia, and how the English bowlers might combat the prolific Australian batsmen. A plan involving fast leg-theory was hatched and, in what looked like a routine Championship match between Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire at the Arms Park, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce announced in the week leading up to their visit that they would be experimenting with fast leg-theory prior to boarding the ship for the journey out to Australia. With the prospect of a most intriguing contest, a large crowd turned up at the Cardiff ground at the end of August; after seeing Nottinghamshire dismissed on the first day, they watched Turnbull give a masterly display of batting against the much-vaunted Nottinghamshire pacemen. In a memorable three and a quarter hours of play, the Glamorgan captain prospered against the Bodyline bowling and, with Dai Davies, added a record 220 for the third wicket, with Turnbull ending unbeaten on 160 with his side on 354 for four. Jack did not agree with the principle of Bodyline, believing that such tactics had no real place in a bowler’s armoury as they lacked finesse or subtlety. He believed instead that bowlers should concentrate on their normal skills rather than intimidating batsmen with a series of fast, rising deliveries, and a ring of fielders in close catching positions on the leg side. It irked him especially as he had several good friends in the Nottinghamshire side and, after play at the Arms Park, he met up with them for a few drinks and a good chat. It proved to be quite an eventful night as the visitors grumbled long into the evening about what they considered to be a feather-bed wicket. Jack though was not afraid to give his opinion about the value of leg-theory itself and there were a few quite heated discussions about the tactic with Jack, for once, forcibly making his points rather than swapping jokes or reminiscing. Jack duly went home but the visiting bowlers were soundly of the opinion Senior professional