Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

in a week if an ‘odds’ game against 23 players from the Wimmera at Horsham is included. South probably preferred to forget the Horsham game, which was arranged as a train stop. The battle against odds, the peculiar shape of the ground, and the strange decisions of the umpire which favoured the home side, caused them to lose the match by two goals. Against three of the leading Victorian Football Association teams, Melbourne, Carlton and Fitzroy, however, their performances were much more respectable with one win, one draw and one loss. South defeated Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the Saturday, drew with Carlton at the same venue on the Tuesday, but then lost to Fitzroy at that club’s home ground the following day, by which time the visitors were starting to feel their bruises. Jones was also prominent for another reason – an heroic off-field action. Jones revealed coolness and bravery in stopping a team of runaway horses following an accident in Fitzroy on the Sunday, when a drag containing both South and Melbourne players collapsed, through an axle breaking and the drag tipping over. Jones was thrown into the gutter but managed to secure the reins allowing the inside occupants to escape through a window with only minor injuries. He was rewarded with cheques of £10 10s from the Melbourne club presented by their president, Frank Grey Smith, and £5 5s from the owner of the drag, as well as a recommendation for a Royal Humane Society medal. It was stated that South Adelaide would make a further presentation to him when he returned home. By late June Jones had been selected to represent South Australia in an intercolonial match against Victoria, again at the MCG, and in a close encounter was one of the best players for his team. He had reached the pinnacle of the sport in just a handful of games. As the year wore on, he continued to move between defence and attack. In one summary of his season it was noted that he ‘profited immeasurably’ by his experience of moving to defence, and as he was a ‘very determined player’ should be seen in the front rank the following year. At this distance it seems that ‘very determined’ might have been a euphemism for ‘rough’. In his first year South had been involved in games against Port Adelaide and Norwood which the Observer reporter Moody had severely criticised. The first against Port he said was ‘the roughest of contests that has ever disgraced the Adelaide Oval with men being laid out all over the shop’; the The Footballer: 1892-1907 71