Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

being forced to bowl an hour and a half at a stretch. As he tired, even less skilled batsmen could play him with ease, as James O’Halloran did in his undefeated century on debut, and as demonstrated by William Roche, Trumble, Johns, Kelly and McKibbin. In the first game Victoria was 9 for 218 in its first innings before O’Halloran put on a last wicket stand of 136 with Johns whose 57 was his highest first-class score; and 7 for 92 in the second before reaching 230. Jones’ figures on those occasions ballooned to 6 for 122 and 6 for 84, while in Sydney his 8 for 157 from 51 overs came in New South Wales’ only innings after their recovery from 4 for 28 to 420. An additional factor was the failure of the South Australian slip fielders to take the catches offered from their ace bowler. What made matters worse was that the previous season Giffen persuaded Jones to adopt an off stump line rather than aim at the leg stump. Giffen’s reasoning was that fewer balls would be directed off the wicket, allowing easy run scoring on the leg side; that if a ball did veer towards the legs there was a good chance of bowling the batsman off his pads; and that the off stump attack gave three additional chances of getting the batsman out – he might snick the ball to slip, be bowled, or play the ball on to his stumps. However, the slips chances were not being taken and all sorts of remedies were suggested, including abandoning practice nets and, instead, setting slip fields to Jones to help practice make perfect. One worry Jones didn’t have was about throwing. No complaint came from umpires in Jones’ season at home, and, in fact, Jim Phillips, who officiated in Tests in both Australia and England, expressed the opinion that he had no hesitation in declaring Jones’ delivery fair. Over the 1896/97 first-class season Jones gathered 32 wickets at 17.96 in four games to finish third in the national bowling averages behind New South Wales pair, off-spinner McKibbin and medium-pacer Howell. The main complaint probably came from South Adelaide club wicket-keeper Jack Brunton who conceded 49 byes in North Adelaide’s total of 184 during one of Jones’ fiery spells. It had been a long time since Jones had enjoyed a break from cricket or spent any time with his family. In early March, however, South Adelaide raised no demur to Jones taking his wife away to the seaside for a holiday when they encountered the Adelaide club on the Neutral Ground, which later became known as the Adelaide 30 The Great Fast Bowler: 1896-1899