Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

35 Chapter Six With George Parr’s Team in the USA and Canada 1859 At the conclusion of the 1859 cricket season twelve English professional cricketers were chosen to cross the Atlantic Ocean and undertake a short tour of Canada and America. The tour was arranged by the Montreal Cricket Club, the leading cricketing body in America and by the Cricketers Friendly Society in England. The Montreal Club guaranteed that each of the twelve players would receive £50 plus the whole of any expenses they might incur. The twelve players selected comprised the pick of the AEE and UAEE teams, six players from each being chosen. From Nottinghamshire came George Parr, the captain, Jem Grundy, and, of course, John Jackson; from Sussex John Wisden and John Lillywhite; from Cambridgeshire Tom Hayward, Robert Carpenter and Alfred John Diver; and from Surrey Heathfield Stephenson, Julius Caesar, William Caffyn and Tom Lockyer. The team set sail from Liverpool on 7 September on the Nova Scotia and suffered a rough crossing of 15 days in various stages of discomfort before casting anchor in the St Lawrence River on 21or 22 September. At one stage the waves were so high that John Wisden suggested that the seas ‘could do with a touch of the heavy roller’ but they finally disembarked safely and got down to business. The team’s series of matches began in Montreal on 24 September against XXII of Lower Canada whom they beat by eight wickets, with Jackson bowling 70.1 overs in the match to take thirteen for 42. He had announced himself in style to his hosts. This was followed by a supplementary match in which the six of the UAE and five locals took on the six of the AEE and five more locals. Jackson took three for 48 in a match curtailed by rain. At Hoboken, New York, watched by a huge crowd of 2,500, the team beat XXII of USA by an innings and 64 runs on 3, 4 and 5 October, with Jackson’s 28 overs bringing him eleven for 11 or ten for 10. There was another supplementary match between T.Lockyer’s side and H.H.Stephenson’s side, in the course of which Jackson hit Parr on the arm thus putting him out of action for the rest of the tour. After the match a dinner was held in the English team’s honour at Astor House. Three days later, in Philadelphia, Jackson took eight for 37 in 59 overs and seven for 7 in 16, as England beat XXII of Philadelphia by seven wickets. There was yet another supplementary match between Five of the South of England with six Americans and Five of the North of England which was