Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

night of the match and took no further part either in the game or in Test cricket. As a result Australia’s lower order was able to muster enough resilience to reach 224, a lead of 177. England had reduced the target to 158 at the end of the second day but their chance of victory was washed away by rain on the final day. Jones had slim pickings in the three matches against Oxford University, Leicestershire and Derbyshire before the Third Test but got among the wickets in early July with 7 for 31 in the first innings against Lord Robartes’ English Eleven at Truro, and seven more victims in the following game against Midland Counties at Edgbaston. At Old Trafford, in the Fourth Test, the English side lost 4 for 47 and 5 for 107 on the opening day before a crowd of 30,000. Heavy dew may have helped the bowlers initially and Jones, pitching short, made the ball bounce and grabbed three of the wickets: Fry playing onto his stumps, Ranjitsinhji from a tame stroke to mid-on, and Jackson from a snick to slip when attempting to cut. Thereafter, the Australians had a hard time. The pitch played much more truly in the afternoon and Hayward (130) found useful partners in Brockwell, Lilley and Young. Hayward, having taken two hours to reach 50, increased his scoring tempo and was particularly severe on Jones (3 for 136) with his cutting as the score climbed to 372 on the first day. Dew again on the second morning aided the pace of the amateur Kent fast bowler Bill Bradley as Australia slumped to 7 for 57 before Noble’s obduracy saw them recover to 196. A compulsory follow-on saw Noble keep the pads on for a further five hours (and a combined tally of 149 runs in eight-and-a-half hours), which enabled Australia to reach a safe position before Darling’s pointless late declaration. The final target was 171 runs in just over an hour and provided the only spark for spectators when the batsmen hit out at almost every ball and reached 3 for 94. Jones got rid of Quaife, but the real interest was whether Ranjitsinhji could reach 50 – he finished one run short. The fate of the rubber now rested on the final match at The Oval, but before that the Australians contested seven first-class games. One Jones would be glad to have missed was the clash against W.G.Grace’s Eleven at Crystal Palace. An hour after the Manchester Test had ended the tourists were speeding away to London by the Great Central railway. They dined on the train, and so voracious were their appetites that they ate everything available, and other The Great Fast Bowler: 1896-1899 47