Lives in Cricket No 4 - Ernie Jones

However, an even more vivid eye-witness account is given by ‘Recorder’ in the Observer . The total of byes, which topped the score for the opposition, accompanied the express bowler operating at terrific pace and removing four of the five top-order batsmen for single figure scores. However, after the first half-hour his length and direction left much to be desired. Poor Brunton alternated between standing at short-stop and close to the stumps, but no matter where he stationed himself many balls went wide of him. Reedman had the wicket-keeper backed up by a long-stop but the first man he tried there was too tall to get down to the balls quickly enough, and the next one was so short that the shots from the human catapult 60 yards away twice knocked him over and then crossed the boundary. Really three long-stops were needed to cope with such bowling in such a dim light. Jones was faster than Tom Richardson, faster than ‘Tibby’ Cotter, faster than Jack Gregory, Ted McDonald and the Aboriginal lightning bowler Eddie Gilbert who knocked the cap off Don Bradman. He was even faster than Harold Larwood, whom he reckoned couldn’t put a dent in a pound of butter. The great all-rounder Monty Noble in his book, The Game’s The Thing , testified to his pace, stating that he once attempted to cut a ball from Jones that had pitched outside the off stump but made his stroke when the ball was in the wicket-keeper’s hands. It may therefore come as some surprise that Jones admitted that the Essex amateur Charles Kortright was faster than himself – but only for two or three overs! Legends are often made in their own lunch hours. In the case of cricketers they are also made in the dressing rooms or in the bar at the end of the day. They also benefit from reflections in tranquility. Thus in the second innings of the match against Lord Sheffield’s Eleven he cracked a couple of Jackson’s ribs while the batsman made 95 not out. As Jackson reports, he wondered whether the ribs were more painful than the handshake of apology he received a month later. Part of the appeal of Jones was his strength and from an Australian viewpoint the ability of a man from ‘down pit’ to take on and defeat the pride of the English ‘establishment’. He was also emerging at a time not long after the Victorian fascination with The Legend 83