Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

19 Early Career, Marriage and Family At Melton Mowbray Jackson guested for the local Twenty-Two and took six AEE wickets. At Sleaford he ran riot, taking fourteen for 40 with only two local men scoring double figures. His ‘foghorn’ must have been noticeable on that occasion! Maidstone saw him playing against the great Alfred Mynn when he bowled the old master for a duck in his second innings. In a violent overnight storm at Maidstone the refreshment tent was blown down and had to be replaced. In a match against the Nottingham Commercial Club Haygarth mentioned that other accounts credit Jackson with the wicket of J.Marfleet, a wicket that Haygarth’s account credited to W.S.Fiennes. Against Twenty-Two of Leeds the last twelve Leeds wickets fell for only 4 runs, but rain which arrived on the last day prevented a finish. In its report of the match at Stoke-on-Trent the Midland Counties Advertiser was moved to write about ‘Jackson’s invincible bowling’. Only two bowlers were used by each side in this match which was an unusual occurrence. Parr, the AEE captain, objected to one of Stoke’s given man, Bickley, and offered the locals A.Crossland instead out of his own team, with J.Collins of Stoke playing for the AEE. Stoke got the best of this bargain as Crossland delivered 59 balls in the AEE first innings without a run being scored off him and took five for 11 in the second innings, whilst Collins made two ducks for the AEE. Stoke won the match by 40 runs. Spectators were entertained by a brass band and a pianoforte and concertina. Scoring was very low with four completed innings amounting to no more than 212 runs. Before we leave 1856 behind we should mention two other games that Jackson participated in during the season. He had been engaged as a professional bowler to coach the students of Cambridge University in the Spring Term and, in this capacity, he joined with other professionals similarly engaged to play a match against a Cambridge University team on 24, 25 and 26 April. He took two wickets in the match for 46 runs but had the misfortune to bag a ‘pair’ with the bat. The University team won the match by 28 runs. Later in the season he took part in a match at Leamington Spa between the Players and Fifteen Gentlemen of England, scoring 8* and 10, and taking nought for 14 and four for 26 as the Gentlemen won by 43 runs. Jackson’s debut in the more prestigious Players v Gentlemen fixture was not to be long delayed. He had a magnificent season in 1857 taking more than three hundred wickets in all matches. He was often seriously over-bowled, on one occasion at Bradford bowling 101 four-ball overs in the match, but he was the main strike bowler for most of the teams in which he played. He was a prolific wicket taker and a willing and strong worker, so the temptation to bowl him was overwhelming. Such serious over-bowling, though, almost certainly shortened his career and led to the injury which caused his retirement from first-class cricket at the age of only 33. As a batsman he went to the crease on 51 occasions for a highest score of 27, but his fielding was, as usual, excellent and he pouched 29 catches in all games. A major development in the 1857 fixture list was the beginning of the series of matches between the All-England Eleven and the United England