Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

Fred Gould; and SACA secretary Bill Jeanes was treasurer. Among those serving on the committee were several of Jones’ state cricket team-mates: Clem Hill, Harry Blinman, Joe Travers and Norrie Claxton; then state captain Vic Richardson; leading Adelaide citizen and SACA committee man Sidney Talbot Smith; as well as local artistic and theatrical people such as the caricaturist and writer Kerwin Maegraith and producer Harold Gard. The testimonial match, in which South Australia played New South Wales in December 1933, saw the SACA determine that Jones should receive the proceeds of the gate, less the average amount raised from the past three corresponding games in Adelaide. Since 20,193 people attended the three-day match which SA won by ten wickets – the great drawcard Don Bradman made 1 and 76 – Jones ended up with £477. That was not the only fundraising for Jones, and Bradman was a further drawcard when he made his theatrical debut on the Saturday night of the match in a Maegraith revue, It Ain’t Cricket , which was staged at Adelaide’s leading live-theatre venue, the Theatre Royal. The show did not have the smooth well-oiled swing of professional theatre and the dialogue was jerky, but it was a huge success. From Brutus’s murderous soliloquy in the opening scene to the happy ending in the Old Bailey trial the plot was ridiculous but the humour was sustained, and because much of it was impromptu, delighted the crowd. Extraordinary impersonations of famous figures in international affairs provided one of the features of the play and Hitler, Mussolini, Gandhi leading a goat, and Jardine received well-deserved ovations. A number of specialist song and dance numbers interspersed into the show were first rate apart from the cricket routines. Bradman made intermittent appearances. His repartee was so well done that most of the audience thought it was impromptu, while Arthur Mailey filled another gap with some topical sketches. Life and Work: 1912-1943 79 A cartoon of Jones drawn about 1932.