Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

butcher’s shop and the child lay in a room which opened into the shop; the mother nursed her child and in between served customers with raw meat. In the summer of 1897/98 there was also a severe epidemic of measles which killed 49 people in the city, the majority young children. Perhaps it was for these reasons that Jones had moved his family three miles north to Olive Street, Prospect, but if so they were not necessarily safe. The same month that Thelma died there were a number of cases of typhoid in Prospect as a correspondent ‘Nervous’ noted in a letter to the Advertiser . ‘Nervous’ lived in Clifton Street, about a third of a mile from Olive Street, and stated that there were was a case in the house next door, another within 50 yards and more within the neighbourhood. The writer felt the cause was likely to be the lack of deep drainage in the area, and to lessen the risk of an epidemic suggested that no water be thrown in the water closet cesspit; that sifted ashes or sand be kept in the WC to keep the pit as dry as possible; and that all slops from the kitchen and water be buried daily in a hole and covered with soil. There was a call for a council inspector to examine what became of liquid matter from the yards of the houses in Clifton Street. The danger arose if it was conveyed by open drains on to vacant land adjoining the houses by distributing germs through cows who fossicked around these moist spots for green herbage thereby contaminating their milk. It is hoped the Jones family did not face similar perils. ***** By the time the 1898/99 season came around, Jones was part of a players’ dispute with the SACA over payments for loss of time. On 11 October the Cricket Committee resolved to allow players loss of time plus five shillings a day pocket money when playing away from Adelaide and to extend Jones’ employment contract from December until March. In early November, Jones claimed £2 10s but this was rejected on the grounds that as an employee he had been paid in full and lost nothing. As a counter offer, the committee agreed to purchase Jones a pair of buckskin boots, but this was knocked back by the player who asked for a lesser cash amount. Persistent lobbying by Jones finally saw him attain £4 per week loss of time, but no payment of his wage when he was away. Given the severity of the 1890s depression and the lack of work it might explain why Jones, despite his sporting prominence, often 40 The Great Fast Bowler: 1896-1899