Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

brilliant stop and return saw Bob Mitchell run out, and then McLeod gave his final chance. By winning three of its four engagements, South Australia claimed its first Sheffield Shield. Jones was a major instrument in that win throughout the summer, along with the superb all-round talents of Giffen and the dependable batting of Jack Lyons, ‘Dinny’ Reedman and Joe Darling. He topped both the bowling aggregate and averages (19 wickets at 20.47) for his colony, prompting the question of what he might achieve on rougher surfaces in England. Bowling on a lively Adelaide Oval pitch on the first day of the first game against New South Wales, Jones took 5 for 50 in the first innings of his side’s 237 run victory, and his 5 for 73 in the second innings of the last match against Victoria clinched the trophy. Probably the person least excited by Jones’ performance in that game, played on a pitch described as ‘hard as asphalt, smooth as a billiard table, and with a glaze on it like an ironed shirt-front’, was debutant wicket-keeper Roland Hill. His left hand was split in the bowler’s first over of the match and he never received another opportunity in first-class ranks. Jones continued to dominate for South Adelaide in club cricket, although at the start of the season he was on the verge of severing his ties with the club. It is not clear what the row was about, except to say that it was probably concerned with contractual terms. Jones was newly married and settling into a new home with a child on the way. The marriage to 18-year-old Eliza Matthews took place at her family home in Sturt Street in September with Eliza three months pregnant. Jones, then working as a stonecutter with the Public Buildings Department, and his wife moved to Waymouth Street in the west end of the city to prepare for first child, Mary Lillian, who duly arrived in March, 1894. Jones missed the first couple of games when South secretary Maddern (who was also South Adelaide football club secretary) and his committee did not see eye to eye with the dangerous fast bowler. However, Jones caved in and, instead of playing for Hindmarsh, donned the flannels against them under the old banner. If there was any lingering soreness, it was only his limbs, as his 6 for 65 kept Hindmarsh’s innings within check for 275. At first he was fast without getting near the wicket but when he came back he slowed down, bowled a better length and kept the batsmen’s eyes skinned in a heady performance. Later in the season he improved on that effort by taking three more six-wicket Star Ascending: 1892-1895 13