Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

demonstration against Darling and Trumble, in particular, was described by the Sydney Evening News as ‘cowardly’. 1899: Australians in England There was no match to be played in Colombo on the way over. The players preferred to see the sights of Ceylon rather than run the risk of heat exhaustion by playing under a scorching sun when they were not acclimatised. After the Ormuz dropped anchor at noon on 5 April the cricketers spent an hour at the magnificent Grand Oriental and Bristol Hotels before nearly everyone hired a rickshaw and drove out to Mount Lavinia and another splendid hotel. Jones, Hill and two other passengers soon had their ‘coolies’ racing and Hill’s human ‘horse’, desperate to win, resented being passed, with the result that Jones’ rickshaw was overturned as was his coolie. At this distance it is hard to know how to interpret the incident. Was it jolly japes or hooliganism with racial overtones? Back at sea there was a fancy dress ball five days later, in which some team members went to a lot of bother with exotic costumes, but Jones settled for going as a cook. On the voyage players kept fit playing deck games and Jones added to a succession of victories by defeating Frank Iredale in the final of a bull-board competition. When Jones left Adelaide Eliza would have been heavily pregnant and one of the first letters from home brought news of the birth of a daughter, Doris May. The first Australian team led to England by Joe Darling was practically the same side which had taken part in the 1897/98 series and it proved a close contest, with the Australians winning 1-0 with four matches drawn. Jones was probably the key player and was quickly into form with 9 for 156 against the South of England in his opening game at Crystal Palace. However, partly because five Test matches were being played in England for the first time and the first Test began three weeks earlier than the previous tour, there were fewer warm-up games against the counties. He played in only three matches before the First Test as against ten on the previous tour, and had bowled just over 100 overs for 14 wickets at 19.28. At Trent Bridge the series opened on a hard and true wicket in glorious June weather, with the Australians battling grittily for 252 against Jack Hearne and debutant Wilfred Rhodes who took four wickets apiece. When England went in soon after noon on the The Great Fast Bowler: 1896-1899 43