Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

Despite a hard-hitting 54 opening the batting and 7 for 48 for North Adelaide at the Neutral Ground against West Torrens later the same month, a leg injury prevented him from doing justice to himself when Bert Bailey laid the heavy wood about in compiling 199 out of 5 for 303 for Sturt. Jones missed the intercolonial game at Adelaide Oval against New South Wales in December, due to a strained leg, and must have marvelled at South Australia’s innings victory built around Clem Hill’s magnificent innings of 365 not out. The same injury kept Jones out of South Australia’s eastern states tour which followed over New Year and early January. When his wife, Eliza, was suffering from ill health he moved to the seaside for several weeks before returning to play a blasting innings of 66 against East Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. Overall, Jones’ injuries hampered his club form and his 22 wickets came at the higher cost of 17.63, although his batting was more reliable with 214 runs at 23.77. Towards the end of the season there was one sour note which came from an overseas source. When the 1901 Wisden arrived, it was found that editor Sydney Pardon had contributed notes on the no-balling question and published the following paragraph: I think that the necessity of doing something was first brought home to the MCC committee and the county authorities when Jones and McKibbin so flagrantly disregarded Law 10 during the Australian tour of 1896. In saying this, the writer went much further in his criticism of Jones than any authority had done and was keeping the throwing slur alive. Naturally Jones had his defenders, and because there were no unquestionable opinions on throwing, they were quick to quote from a Charles Fry article from the Athletic News of just a few weeks before. The English opener had opposed Jones on many occasions and wrote of him: ‘I may say that I have never seen him bowl an illegitimate ball.’ The only trouble in this case was the defence witness. Fry was England’s leading all-round sportsman, and a lateral thinker about sports and games. However, he had been blacklisted by a meeting of county captains as a bowler with a suspect action. 1901/1902 series The SACA finally tired of its arrangement of employing Jones as a ground bowler, cancelling their agreement with him at the end of A Slow Dimming: 1900-1903 54