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Ernie Jones: The man who sent a ball through the beard of WG Grace

In a famous Ashes moment, an Ernie Jones delivery went ruffled through WG Grace's beard.

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Ernie Jones (second from right, back row), with the Australian team that toured England in 1896. Picture Courtesy: Wikipedia
Ernie Jones (second from right, back row), with the Australian team that toured England in 1896. Picture Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Ernie Jones, born September 30, 1869, was one of the fastest bowlers in the game and has become immortal after sending a ball through WG Grace’s beard. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of the man who was the first cricketer to be called for chucking in a Test match.

Through the most famous beard in cricket

Whatever be the other achievements of a commendable career, Ernie Jones will always be remembered in the folklore of cricket as the man who sent a ripper through the beard of the great WG Grace.

It was in the mid of May, 1896, that Jones bowled his first ball in the old country. Facing him was WG, in his 48th year. The previous season had seen the champion enjoy an Indian summer, and he was carrying on in much the same vein.

The match was between the ninth Australian team to tour England and Lord Sheffield’s XI at Sheffield Park in front of a huge crowd of 24,930. And the stands were rapt from the moment Jones started tearing in to bowl. According to George Giffen’s assessment of the young Jones in With Bat and Ball: “On the field his mission seems to be to make things hum.”

The first three balls hit WG, painfully, on the leg and in the ribs. The crowd gasped and gasped again. And then came the fourth delivery.

WG’s biographer Simon Rae calls the fourth ball the single most famous delivery that the great man ever faced. It passed straight through the Champion’s beard and flew to the boundary. Non-striker Stanley Jackson later wrote, “I can see WG now. He threw his head back which caused his beard to stick out.”

The ground heard the shrill, high pitched voice of WG piping out, “What — what — what?”

Harry Trott, the captain of Australia, stood at point, wondering if the very first over in England would plunge the tour into crisis. He looked at his fast bowler and said, “Steady, Jonah.”

And Jones glanced at Grace and mouthed the famous words, “Sorry, doctor, she slipped.”

That day, even as Jones skittled out 7 batsmen, Grace and Jackson added 58, withstanding the fury of the new ball. As a result,WG’s chest was rendered black and blue. Jackson broke a rib in the second innings while scoring an unbeaten 95.

Later, Jackson described the event: “In the second innings, when I had made about 10, I had the misfortune to stop one with my ribs, but with the assistance of W. A. J. West, the umpire, who rubbed me, I was able to continue my innings. When I went to London I had a good deal of pain, and my father sent for the doctor, who said, ‘It’s cracked horizontally.’ He strapped me up, and I did not play for three weeks. Within a month of Sheffield Park I faced Jones at Lord’s in the M.C.C. match, and he came up to me and said, ‘I am terribly sorry’, and he clasped my hand in a vice-like grip that left me wondering which was the more painful — my hand or broken ribs.”

The rest of the batsmen of Lord Sheffield’s XI were not that brave. As Jones made the ball fly, the best of them evidently decided to save themselves for the Tests.

In Life Worth Living CB Fry wrote, “When Arthur Shrewsbury got to that end, having watched the first two balls, he deliberately tipped the next into the hands of second slip, and before the catch was held had folded his bat under his right arm-pit and marched off. Then the six feet three inches of William Gunn walked delicately to the wicket. The first ball from Jones whizzed past where his head had just been. William withdrew from the line of the next ball and deliberately tipped it into the slips and he too had pouched his bat and was stepping off to the pavilion before the catch was surely caught.”

Fry was not above exaggerating accounts more than just a wee bit. However, both Shrewsbury and Gunn were dropped from the team for the first Test.

During the Test at Lord’s, Jones sent another one whistling past Grace’s face, some claimed that even this went through his beard.

Opinions are varied as to how upset Grace was. Lord Harris thought the Champion uttered, “Whatever are ye at?” Home Gordon later wrote that he was conspicuously ruffled. The batsman regained composure only after taking his time and making some choice observations to the wicketkeeper.

Grace forever referred to Jones as ‘the fellow who bowled through my beard.’

Not a deferential bone

Before the 1896 tour Jones had been a rather unknown entity. A former miner from Broken Hill, South Australia, Jones was a talented Australian Rules Footballer. He represented Port Adelaide, North Adelaide and South Adelaide during his Football career.

His bowling was reputed to be fast and rather erratic. The one Test he had played against Andrew Stoddart’s men in 1893-94 had seen less than striking success. Even in domestic cricket he tended to have occasional good days sprinkled between ordinary outings.

It was believed that the hard wickets of Australia were not really suited for fast bowling. But then, during the same 1893-94 Ashes, arrived the lion hearted, dark haired Tom Richardson. His 32 wickets in the series demonstrated the amount of damage fast men could inflict. There was an outcry to encourage fast bowlers. And Jones was by far the fastest in the land.

He had a poor 1894-95 domestic season, picking his wickets at a supremely expensive 45 apiece. But, he was persisted with. The next year proved fruitful with almost double the number of wickets at a measly 17 each. Additionally, his endless energy was infectious. He was picked for the tour of England.

The scorching pace of Jones made several embarrassing dents on English pride during that summer of 1896. He ended the season with 121 wickets at 16 apiece and hurting a lot of batsmen in the process. They must have heaved a cumulative sigh of relief when he finally left and went to tour North America with the Australian side. But, even before the cricket had commenced, Jones had already made his presence felt on the English sensibilities.

From left: Joe Darling, George Giffen, Ernie Jones. Sitting on floor: Clem Hill. © Getty Images
From left: Joe Darling, George Giffen, Ernie Jones
Sitting on floor: Clem Hill © Getty Images

In a reception at the Buckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales had asked the fast bowler whether he had attended the St Peter’s School in Adelaide. Jones had replied, “Yes, Sir. I take the dust-cart there each Monday.” There is also a variant of this story which says that when Lord Hawke had asked him if he had been to the Adelaide University, Jones had replied, “Yes, My Lord, with a load of bloody sand.”

The lack of deference to the royalty and peerage continued onto the cricket field. Jones liked to jump over the gates rather than walk through them as he entered the ground and sent down his screaming fast deliveries to the cricketing kings.

His line was prone to be fast but erratic. So was his personality. Ever eager for a wrestling match, he also had the rather disturbing habit of surprising teammates on the tour by smacking them across the legs with a cane while they were enjoying a quiet walk. It was young Joe Darling who found a remedy to this by procuring a stick of his own, creeping up on Jones and rewarding him with a whack.

Chucker?

However, opinion was divided about Jones. Many were awed by his speed, but more were sceptical about his action. Although there were worse offenders, Jones was always in the spotlight because of his brutal pace.

When the tour ended, questions were asked about his action. Sydney Pardon , the editor of Wisden, wrote that the earlier Australian Elevens would never have brought bowlers like Jones and Tom McKibbin. “Jones’s bowling is, to our mind, radically unfair, as we cannot conceive a ball fairly bowled at the pace of an express train with a bent arm. The fault of our own bowlers with regard to throwing have been so many and grievous that we are extremely glad Jones was allowed to go through the season unchallenged, but now that the tour is a thing of the past it is only a duty to speak plainly on the matter . We do so with more confidence as we know our opinion is shared by a great many of the best English players.”

By that time there was already a great push against throwing. Retired Australian bowling great, Fred Spofforth, now settled in England, wrote in the Sporting Times, “With the last (Australian) eleven there was one who hardly ever delivered a fair ball, and although I am quite aware that I may raise a hornet’s nest about my head by mentioning names, I allude to Tom McKibbin who, I shall always maintain, should never be allowed to play under the existing rule.”

Spofforth condemned umpires for not calling bowlers and proposed a committee of county captains who could suspend throwers for a first offence, and then add fines and longer suspensions. Somehow he did not mention Jones explicitly, but there were other voices clamouring for action against the fast man. Giffen defended both the Australians. “Some critics say Jones throws, but in my mind his delivery is perfectly fair.”

But the scourge against the chuckers had started, and there was a man who was specially geared to do the job. ‘Dimboola Jim’ Phillips had been an engineer, a gifted cricketer, was a commendable journalist and businessman, and a one man umpiring crusade.

A former fast bowler for Victoria and Middlesex, Phillips became an umpire in county and Test matches. He used to officiate in England and then, at the end of summer, travel to Australia and stand in matches Down Under. With his travel and experience across continents, he was the man best suited to compare and contrast actions and step in when one had to be firm. And he was both fearless and rather stubborn.

When Andrew Stoddart’s Englishmen travelled to Australia for the 1897-98 tour, South Australia played the visitors in November. In this match Phillips called the express ball of Jones. However, it did not stop him from claiming 7 for 189 in a high scoring draw.

And then, in the second Test at Melbourne, as drought hit eastern Australia and heatwave in the city made temperatures soar to 35 degrees for more than 25 days at a stretch, Jones became the first bowler to be called in a Test match.

As 35 Australian residents died from heat over Christmas, the stifling nights robbed the Englishmen of sleep. Charlie McLeod, run out in the most unscrupulous fashion in the previous Test, hit his maiden Test century and Australia piled up 520. When England batted, McKibbin got rid of the openers, and Jones picked up 2 wickets as well. But, then Phillips called Jones. The partisan crowd booed the umpire, but Sydney Pardon predicted: “From what Phillips has done, nothing but good can come.”

With Hugh Trumble picking up 4 wickets, England followed on 215 behind, but Trott did not hand the ball to Jones in the second innings.

It did not really matter in the end as far as the Test match was concerned. Trumble tied down the batsmen and tricked them with his dip and turn. Debutant Monty Noble used an American baseball-style grip on the ball to establish himself as one of cricket’s first true swing or swerve bowlers. Trumble picked up 4 and Noble 6 and Australia won by an innings.

Success

Trott, however, allowed Jones to bowl during the rest of the series, and Phillips was strangely silent after that Melbourne Test.

At Adelaide, when KS Ranjitsinhji walked out to bat, the spectators did not really give him a warm welcome. They were not very amused by Ranji’s criticism of the wicket in Melbourne and the ground conditions of Adelaide, as well his remarks about the skill of the local players. As the Indian prince emerged into the ground, cries were heard, “Get him for a duck, bowl him Jonah.” Ranji scored a 77 in the second innings, but vowed never to play in Adelaide again.

Jones captured 6 wickets during the fourth Test at Melbourne and 9 in the fifth at Sydney as Australia romped to a 4-1 series win. By this time the Australian crowd saw him as the favoured hitman. When he struck tail-ender Jack Hearne in the fifth Test, men on the infamous Sydney Hill tittered with laughter.

When Jones returned to England in 1899, he bowled to WG again at Nottingham, in what turned out to be the champion’s final Test match. According to Cricket, “Jones’s first ball was sensational. If Grace had not been to some extent prepared by previous experience, there might have been a nasty experience. As it was he ducked in time.” It was called a no-ball, but for overstepping. Jones claimed 5 in that innings.

Before the second Test at Lord’s Jones walked into the dressing room of England and borrowed a shirt that Fry had invented. It gave freedom to the arms and did not pull out at the waist. “So I lent him a shirt and never saw it again,” wrote Fry. “And no wonder, it served him well.”

Bowling furiously fast, with an unquestionably straight arm, Jones rattled England with 7 for 88. Ranji however confided to Fry, “The man we have to fear is that chucker,”  but even Pardon wrote that he “bowled with a fairer action and strove to keep within the law.” Jones claimed 3 in the second innings to get his only 10-wicket haul in Test cricket and Australia romped home by ten wickets. Fry admitted that Jones was the difference between the two sides.

Throughout that summer Jones menaced the English batsmen. Captain Joe Darling later recalled, “In one match [Gilbert] Jessop was deliberately bowling at the batsmen and hit several of us on a fiery wicket. Jones retaliated…He had only two men on the onside and goodness knows what would have happened if he had been told to bowl the same as [Harold] Larwood did to a packed leg field.”

However, Jones was not all fury. There was a soft heart that beat within him. Against Gloucestershire, he told Darling that he did not want to bowl at the pipe-thin Charlie Townsend: “I am frightened if I hit him the ball will go right through him.”

Darling, who had worked out the remedy for the strikes with the cane during his previous tour, worked out ways to handle his temperamental fast bowler as a captain. He used to stir Jones into bowling fast by asking the wicketkeeper to stand up to him. Sometimes he also made him increase his speed by calling him a medium pacer.

Jones was not always easy to handle. Once during a tour match, he disappeared when made the 12th man. Later, when accosted by angry teammates, he told his colleagues to go to hell. Three of the touring party were in favour of sending him home. However, Darling intervened and had a quiet chat with Jones and in the end coaxed an apology out of him.

It was good that Jones stayed. He was by far the most successful bowler in the Tests as Australia won the series 1-0. His 26 wickets were 11 more than the haul of Hugh Trumble, the next most successful bowler. His overall tally for the tour amounted to 135 wickets.

Decline

The 1899 tour, however, turned out to be the final hurrah for Jones. His pace was seen in sparks during the next few seasons, but the results were ordinary. The consistency deserted him, and although he did play 5 more Tests across the next three years, including a third tour to England, he was not really the force he once was.

The final 5 Tests brought him only 8 wickets at a high average in the forties. He played his last Test at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg on the way back from the 1902 tour of England.

In 19 Tests, Jones captured 64 wickets at 29.01 apiece, rather expensive for his era of helpful wickets. His one attempt at coming back in 1906-07 was less than successful. His First-Class career ended with 641 wickets at 22.83.

As a bowler, after his initial erratic days, Jones developed control over his length and direction, and developed a beautiful action under the guidance of Harry Trott.  Stanley Jackson later compared his bowling style to that of Larwood, especially the moment before delivering the ball when he was high up in the air with the left shoulder well up and pointing towards the wicket. He was also considered to be as fast as Larwood.

According to Giffen, Jones the batsman could have been much better if he had put his mind to it. Seven fifties in First-Class cricket showed that he had some talent with the bat, although his manner at the crease was of the typical fast bowler whose forays are short and merry. In the outfield he was quick and often brilliant.

Ernie Jones, the man who bowled a ball through the beard of WG Grace, passed away in November, 1943.

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix. This column first appeared in DNA)

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