Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

60 Chapter Eight The England Eleven in Australia and New Zealand 1863/64 John Jackson would not have had much time to visit Mahala and his growing family before he was off on his travels again. This time he was heading for Liverpool to join his England colleagues for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, Captained by George Parr of Nottinghamshire, the team comprised Julius Caesar, Caffyn and T.Lockyer of Surrey, R.Carpenter, T.Hayward and G.Tarrant from Cambridgeshire, A.Clarke, R.C.Tinley and J.Jackson from Nottinghamshire, G.Anderson, from Yorkshire and the amateur E.M.Grace from Gloucestershire. A dinner was held in the team’s honour at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool on 14 October and the following day they set out on the SS Great Britain for Melbourne which they reached on 16 December. There was a fairly leisurely start to the tour as the first match was not played until 1 January 1864. The return voyage began on 26 April and the team eventually arrived back in England on 13 June after an absence of almost eight months. The opening match was in Melbourne against XXII of Victoria and was played in front of a truly gigantic crowd with 40,000 paying for admission. T.W.Wills was selected to play for Victoria but, having travelled 1800 miles from North Queensland, he arrived too late to take part. Jackson took six for 48 in 33 overs in Victoria’s first innings of 146 and four for 18 in their second innings of 143. England replied with 176 with Hayward making 61 and Carpenter 59. England needed 114 to win but finished nine runs short with six wickets in hand. The team’s first win came on a dreadful ground, devoid of grass, at Sandhurst, where XXII of Bendigo were beaten on 7, 8 and 9 January by 144 runs. Jackson, a truly frightening proposition on such a rough wicket, had match figures of thirteen for 22 in 43 overs. Only two Bendigo batsmen reached double figures and the second innings top scorer made 5. On 11, 12 and 13 January XXII of Ballarat were beaten by an innings and 12 runs with Jackson taking three for 23 in 15 overs. This was followed by seven for 11 against XXII of Ararat who were dismissed for 35 and 34. This was the match in which Tinley took twenty-six for 45. Tinley followed this up with twenty-one wickets against XXII of Maryborough. Jackson only bowled in the second Maryborough innings, taking six for 5 in 24 overs. Having beaten everyone except Victoria by wide margins, the English team sailed for New Zealand on 25 January aboard the SS Alhambra, heading