Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

24 Early Career, Marriage and Family for 40 as Bradford XXII made 129 all out. Isaac Hodgson and G.Atkinson bowled the AEE out for 66 and Jackson had to bowl a further 37 overs (101 in the match), taking four for 60 as Bradford ran up a score of 156 for ten before rain caused an abandonment. W.Wadsworth hit 55* for Bradford, W.Hirst made 36 and H.Lee 25. On 10 September a Leeds XXII containing a number of the same players who had just finished representing Bradford beat the AEE by 121 runs. Jackson had match figures of two for thirty-five. The AEE batting failed completely against the bowling of G.Atkinson – five for 9 in the first innings – and H.Lee with match figures of eleven for 38. Jackson had a fine match against a Shropshire XXII at Aston Hall, Birmingham. He bowled 55 overs, taking twenty wickets for 30 and terrifying many of the local players on a bad pitch on which 20 ducks were recorded in the Shropshire innings and only one batsman reached double figures. Jackson also made the two highest scores in the match – 25 run out and 14*. The AEE won by eight wickets. At Stockton-on-Tees on 21 September Jackson sent down another 62.1 overs in the match, taking twelve wickets, but AEE lost to Stockton’s XXII by seventeen wickets. Haygarth made a point about local team selection, stating that very few of the XXII had much connection with Stockton. G.Atkinson, I.Hodgson, R.Iddison and T.Hayward, who took nearly all the AEE wickets between them were all from the Bradford and Leeds area. At North Shields on 24 September the AEE beat a local XXII by 30 runs, scores of 97 and 32 being good enough to outscore the local team’s 49 and 50. Jackson took seventeen wickets in the match for 52 runs in 59.1 overs, bowling seven of the last eight batsmen in the second innings. Atkinson and Hodgson had another crack at the AEE, taking nine and six wickets respectively. The final game of the season took place at Richmond, North Yorkshire and was drawn very much in the AEE’s favour. Jackson bowled 49 overs, taking ten for 42. Earlier in the season Jackson, still coaching at Cambridge University, played for the Cambridge professionals against the Undergraduates who were perhaps being instructed too well, for they outplayed the professionals to such an extent that they actually gave up the match after the University had scored 149 and 200, and the professional side 125. Jackson took three wickets. At Bramall Lane on 22 June Jackson played for Nottingham against XVI of Sheffield, Nottingham winning by 9 runs. Jackson bowled 95.3 overs in the match and took nineteen for 105. R.C.Tinley hit 50 for Nottingham. Finally, Jackson played as a given man for the Household Brigade in a 12-a –side match against a team got up by the Earl of Stanford at the Earl’s ground at Enville Hall. Stanford’s side won by six wickets with Jackson taking eight wickets in the match as well as making his team’s top score of 27 which was also Jackson’s highest score of the season. Altogether Jackson had taken 326 wickets in 1857 and was entitled to feel tired. He had also undergone a life-changing experience during the summer. He had got married. Mahala Reavel (or Revel) was a Lincolnshire girl who was baptised at