Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

hauls. In the first of these – 6 for 51 against North Adelaide – he enjoyed a grand struggle with Clem Hill who brilliantly concluded a wonderful week, during which he had scored 360 retired for Prince Alfred College against St Peter’s College, by standing up to Jones’ pace in his top score of 41 not out. Subsequently, Jones wiped out Port Adelaide at the Kensington Oval while claiming 6 wickets for 24, and produced a large proportion of yorkers in grabbing another bag of 6 for 66 against the Adelaide club. Jones’ final tally of 33 wickets at 10.45, placed him second in the association averages and went a long way towards securing South’s second premiership. ***** Jones made further steps in his third season, 1894/95. He took 8 for 23 in a club game for South Adelaide against Austral and 7 for 65 against North Adelaide. Despite struggling in the opening match for South Australia against Andrew Stoddart’s English team in November 1894, he was called up as one of five South Australian players along with Jack Lyons, Joe Darling, George Giffen and Jack Reedman for the First Test in Sydney. As an Australian selector and vice-captain, Giffen demanded rewards for his team-mates in the wake of their Sheffield Shield success the previous season, but the choice of Jones was also as a counter to the great English fast bowler Tom Richardson. According to former Australian captain Tom Horan (‘Felix’ of the Australasian ), captain Jack Blackham had told him that when in Adelaide for a Sheffield Shield match he had received a telegram from co-selector Charles Turner in favour of the South Australians Giffen, Lyons, Darling and Reedman, and Victorians Blackham, Harry Graham, Harry Trott and Charles McLeod, but did not mention any New South Welshmen. In talking the matter over with third selector Giffen, it was agreed that Syd Gregory, Frank Iredale and Turner should be the New South Wales representatives. However, Giffen also suggested Jones because of the possibility of a wet wicket in Sydney, and so that the Australian batsmen should also get some practice against really fast bowling. Jones was thus in selectors’ minds half as a player and half as a net bowler. Given this, he must have been perplexed by the lack of team unity at net sessions with players sticking together with their colonial team-mates. Two days before the Test, the South Australians and three of the four Victorians – Trott, McLeod and 14 Star Ascending: 1892-1895