Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

Explanatory Notes The term ‘colony’ is used for entities now known as Australian states before the federation of Australia on 1 January, 1901. Matches between them are thus referred to as ‘intercolonial’ games, irrespective of the sport, before that time, and as ‘interstate’ games afterwards. There may also be some confusion about Sheffield Shield matches. The Sheffield Shield competition began in 1892/93 but only three colonies – New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia – took part in it. Queensland was the next state to join in 1926/27. Occasional intercolonial/state games were played against Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia but were not Sheffield Shield games. Overs consisted of six balls in Australia throughout Jones’ career. In England they were five balls on his first two English tours of 1896 and 1899, and six balls on his third tour of 1902. In the United States in 1896, overs were eight balls: in South Africa in 1902 they were six balls. The follow-on was compulsory for Test matches in Australia after a deficit of 120 runs in the 1894/95 and 1897/98 series, and optional after a deficit of 150 runs in 1901/02. In England the follow-on was, likewise, compulsory after a deficit of 120 runs in the Test series of 1896 and 1899, and optional after a deficit of 150 runs in 1902. A few words should also be expressed about ‘electorate’ sport. Major club level sport for both cricket and football adopted this system in most colonial capital cities during the 1890s. It was district-based with players qualifying for various clubs according to their place of residence. The districts defined followed the boundaries used for election purposes. Finally, some explanations are necessary regarding the short section on Australian Rules football. Before 1897 scores would be recorded as including both goals and ‘behinds’ but only goals counted. In the early days of the game a behind represented a missed attack on goal but would not count towards the score. Thus 5