Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

In a pleasing introduction to big cricket Jones finished third in the Australian bowling aggregates behind his colonial captain George Giffen and New South Wales’ Michael Pierce. In Adelaide club cricket, Jones was a significant factor in South Adelaide’s first premiership win as he took out the SACA bowling averages with 33 wickets at 14.15. For the most part he simply walked over club batsmen on good wickets. The one occasion he did not was when Norwood in mid-February reached 470 with Giffen scoring 136. On that occasion Jones laboured for 44 overs for 4 for 121. ***** When Jones caught Bob McLeod off George Giffen on 7 March, 1894, South Australia beat Victoria by 58 runs in the deciding intercolonial game of the 1893/94 season. Giffen, recalling the game in his book, With Bat and Ball , four years later, wrote of Jones: Adelaide crowds as a rule are very quiet, and one does not hear one tithe of the barracking which is indulged in in Melbourne and Sydney, but the appearance of Jones with the bat was always a signal for a chorus of yells in which the one word distinguishable was ‘Jonah’. When he lashed out and his wicket fell for ‘nowt’ as it did twice in this game, the good humoured commiseration he received was most amusing. No harm was intended by the crowd; as a matter of fact Jones was, and still is one of their idols. Jones was an idol mainly because of what he achieved with the ball and he absolutely controlled the game on the last day of that match. When play began, Victoria, chasing 371, needed 141 with seven wickets left. If Victoria was successful, New South Wales would win the Sheffield Shield on percentages. South Australia had to win outright. After Fred Jarvis bowled the opening over for one run, Jones smashed down three wickets with four balls. Laver was the first, yorked, then Charlie McLeod was bowled by a full toss. Frank Walters survived a hat-trick but had his leg stump knocked out of the ground next ball. As the Advertiser reported with remarkable understatement: ‘6 for 230 was rather different from 3 for 229’. Bob McLeod and Percy Lewis advanced the score to 308 before Jones returned after lunch to bowl both Lewis and newcomer John Carlton with successive balls. When McLeod drove Giffen, Jones’ Star Ascending: 1892-1895 12