Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

28 Chapter Five Seasons of Plenty Jackson played in 12 first-class matches in 1858, including two appearances for the Players against the Gentlemen. In the match at the Kennington Oval he took six for 55 and three for 53 in a Players victory by three wickets. In the match at Lord’s the Players won with some ease by 285 runs. P.F.Warner described Jackson’s bowling on a rough pitch as being ‘demoralising’. He took five for 19 as the Gentlemen were dismissed for 52 in reply to the Players’ first innings of 115. He took a further two wickets for 27 when the Gentlemen batted again, giving him sixteen wickets for 154 in the two matches. Lord’s at this stage did not produce very good pitches. There were two matches this season between the great professional Elevens, both played at Lord’s. The first game beginning on 7 June was won by the UAEE by four wickets. Jackson scored 10 in the first AEE innings of 111 and then quickly removed Jem Grundy for 0 and John Lillywhite for 1 in UAEE’s reply. Robert Carpenter was next man in and he treated the bowling, especially Jackson’s, with a certain amount of disdain, driving and cutting the fast bowler for several boundaries. Jackson was less than impressed. He softened Carpenter up by hitting him on the back with a hard throw-in and then clean bowled the shaken batsman immediately afterwards for 45. William Caffyn scored 26 and UAEE led by 44 on first innings. Parr scored 52 for the AEE in their second innings of 143, but the UAEE got the 100 runs they needed to win for the loss of six wickets, with T.Hearne hitting 54*. Jackson bowled 60 overs in the match, finishing with five for 50 and two for 45. In the second match which commenced on 26 July and was played for the benefit of George Parr, Jackson’s six for 40 and six for 28 helped the AEE to victory by an innings and 97 runs. Jackson also top-scored for the AEE with 45 in their only innings. The Duke of Malakaff, the French Ambassador, was present at the match and donated £1 to Parr’s fund. Jackson played one County match, for Nottinghamshire against Surrey at the Kennington Oval, taking five for 97 and one for 51, relatively expensive figures for him at this period of his career. Surrey won by nine wickets. It should be noted that Haygarth stated that the two Counties’ scorebooks disagreed on the bowling figures, although Jackson’s figures are not specifically mentioned as being in dispute. The annual North v South fixture at Lord’s saw the first appearance there of that fine Nottinghamshire batsman, Richard Daft. Jackson took eleven wickets in the match (six for 37 and five for 90), bowling 75 overs in all and hitting the stumps nine times. The South made 96 and 208, the North