Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

11 John Jackson - Cricketer even appealed. Such was the terror that this man produced among local batsmen unused to facing bowling of such velocity. Jackson’s main strength was his bowling, fast, straight and round arm, but there were other facets to his game which he developed further as his career blossomed. He became a hard-hitting batsman whose powerful build and long reach proved invaluable to him. He had one first-class century to his credit, made for Nottinghamshire v Kent at Cranbrook in 1863, and he also hit scores of 59 against Surrey at Kennington Oval in 1862, 52 against Yorkshire at Bradford in 1864 and 55 against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge in 1865. He made an unbeaten 68 for England against a Kent XIII in 1864, and 55 for the All-England Eleven against XVIII of Manchester Broughton Club in 1865. As a fieldsman he generally fielded at short slip but later stood in the long field. He had a safe pair of hands and took 117 catches in important matches. When John Jackson’s star began to light up the cricket firmament, cricket had not yet become the universal game which exists today. Matches subsequently given first-class status were few and far between. In 1854 there were 29 such games which gradually increased to 51 in 1870. Public school cricket began to get underway in the 1850s and 1860s. Of the wandering clubs, I Zingari was founded in 1845, Gentlemen of Worcestershire in 1848, Quidnuncs in 1851, Harlequins in 1856, and Free Foresters in 1856. It would appear from what research has been carried out so far that plenty of cricket was being played but at a local level. Other developments were the first Lancashire v Yorkshire match in 1849, the opening of the Bramall Lane ground in Sheffield in 1855. The Cricketers Fund Friendly Society was set up in 1857 to provide some financial support for former professionals who had fallen on hard times. 1862 saw the appearance of Arthur Haygarth’s first volume of Scores and Biographies , John Wisden published his first Almanack in 1864 followed by John Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Companion in 1865. The first overseas tours were made to the USA and Canada in1859 and then Australia and New Zealand in 1861/62. Probably themost significant cricketing development in themid-nineteenth century and one which was central to Jackson’s career, however, was the formation of William Clarke’s All-England Eleven.