Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

22 Early Career, Marriage and Family On 20 July Jackson lined up again for the North against the South at Lord’s. In another epic bowling performance he sent down 41 overs to take eight for 53 in the South’s first innings of 165, and 32 overs to take seven for 38 in their second innings of 95. Fifteen wickets in an eleven-a-side game was a feat rarely achieved, but his side still lost by 14 runs, making only 124 and 122 in their innings. Caffyn – how that name keeps cropping up – hit 90 in the first innings of the South, and T.Lockyer made 40. Eleven of Jackson’s victims were bowled. Jackson had another fine match for the North against the South at Tunbridge Wells on 13 and 14 August. He took thirteen wickets for 44 in a low-scoring match in which the highest team total was 71. With W. Martingell operating at the other end he once again bowled unchanged in both innings. Set 71, highest score of the match to win, the North got them with surprising ease. A low-scoring match between the North and Surrey at Bramall Lane on 24 and 25 August saw Surrey emerge victorious by five wickets. Caffyn – that man again - and Griffith bowled the North out twice for 73 and 63, helped by five of the North batsmen running themselves out, one of their opening batsmen, T.Hunt, managing to do this in both innings for 0 and 7 respectively. Surrey made 93 and 45 for five with Jackson taking three for 53 in the match from 44 overs. Jackson’s final first-class match of the season on 7, 8 and 9 September at Trent Bridge ended in a draw, with the North scoring 50 and 115 and South replying with 54 and 97 for eight, although with John Wisden hurt and possibly unable to bat, this may be counted as nine. And thereby hangs a tale. John Jackson never took all ten wickets in a first-class match, but in an interview he gave to A.W.Pullin (Old Ebor), included in Pullin’s book, Talks with Old England Cricketers , he claimed that in a North v South match he once took nine wickets and lamed John Wisden so that he could not complete his innings – ‘so that was as good as all ten’. In actual fact it was only nine because one of the batsmen, W.Mortlock, was dismissed by F.Bell, although as he was caught by Jackson we can perhaps stretch a point. Jackson’s figures were eight for 20 and in the second innings one for 10. In 12 first-class matches in 1857 Jackson bowled a mammoth 596.2 overs, 247 maidens and took 92 wickets for 788 runs, an average of 8.56. He took 9 catches. It was truly a magnificent performance. In addition to all this, John Jackson took part in 15 of the AEE matches against odds in 1857. He batted 25 times with 6 not outs and scored 97 runs at an average of 5.10. He bowled more than 840 overs, depending on which of various versions of bowling analyses you believe, and took no less than 204 wickets at a remarkably low cost. He cut a swathe through the local teams whose batsmen had rarely, if ever, faced a bowler of his pace, velocity and class. The first match was at the Princes Park ground at Liverpool, beginning on 15 June, a match which the AEE won comfortably by 47 runs against a Liverpool Twenty-Two with Jackson bowling 20.3 overs and taking four for