Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

56 North won by ten wickets. At Lord’s on 20, 21 and 22 July the North triumphed again by 29 runs but Jackson bowled only 10 overs, taking nought for 32. A third encounter took place at the Wavertree Road Ground, Edge Hill, Liverpool, on 27, 28 and 29 August, and again the North won, this time by 84 runs. Jackson bowled E.M.Grace for nought in the second innings whilst taking ten for 85 in 60 overs in the match which was a low- scoring affair, with the North making 114 and 146 and the South 115 and 61. Jackson’s other first-class appearance was at Lord’s on 6, 7 July when an England XI defeated XXIII of Kent by an innings and five runs. E.M.Grace scored 52, Griffith 43 and Carpenter and Parr both passed 30 as England made 230 all out. Tarrant took sixteen wickets including ten for 40 in the Kent second innings, and Jackson took five for 51 in 38 overs to complete the destruction. Jackson took part in 24 matches against odds for the AEE, batting 40 times with ten not outs and scoring 258 runs at an average of 8.60. He took 255 wickets and 30 catches. This year’s trail began on 4, 5 and 6 May at Pudsey near Leeds, the future birthplace of Herbert Sutcliffe, Len Hutton and others. Nobody of this class was playing in the local XXII, but the AEE struggled to win by 7 runs with Jackson taking nine wickets in Pudsey’s first innings. The next game was on 11, 12 and 13 May at Bramall Lane against XVIII of Sheffield and was played as a benefit match for the well-known Sheffield professional, William Slinn. Rain ruined the first day and the match was drawn. Jackson took only two wickets in the match whilst R.C.Tinley took fourteen with his lobs. On 14, 15 and 16 May the side went up to Glasgow and played XXII of the Clydesdale Club at Kinning Park. In a tight finish the local side, set 63 to win, ended up on 56 for seventeen wickets, Jackson having taken eleven of them to supplement the five he had taken in the Glasgow Club’s first innings. The AEE returned to Yorkshire where they beat XXII of Bradford, Birkenshaw and District by 30 runs at Birkenshaw near Leeds on 18, 19 and 20 May. Jackson took nine wickets in each innings, and it is a tribute to his accuracy that 12 men were bowled and one was lbw. Jackson’s next match for the AEE on 28, 29 and 30 May brought him face to face with the 14 year-old W.G.Grace who was playing for XXII of the Lansdown Club at the Sydenham Field in Bath. Grace was unlucky enough to make a pair, dismissed twice by R.C.Tinley, but his elder brother, E.M., scored 73 as Lansdown led by 30 runs on first innings. Tinley and Tarrant hit back, taking sixteen wickets between them to tumble the locals out for 57 in their second innings, leaving the AEE to make 88 to win which they did for the loss of three wickets. On 1 June the AEE began a match on the Trinity Cricket Ground against a Halifax and District XXII. Haygarth commented that ‘the Halifax District must be very large since many of their players come from Sheffield, Bradford and Leeds’. The local paper describes grumbling amongst the At the Height of His Powers