A Hole in the Beard

 

A Hole in the Beard

 

Ernie Jones – An enigma! A legend! A folk-hero! A terror!

Ernie Jones (the circled one)

There are many stories of ‘Jonah’ about his numerous on-field as well as off-field exploits. According to one such well circulated story, during a Buckingham Palace reception, the Prince of Wales had asked him whether he had attended the St Peter’s School in Adelaide. His prompt reply was - “Yes, Sir. I take the dust-cart there each Monday.” There is also another less-popular variant of this story. During a social function, Lord Hawke had once asked him whether he had been to the Adelaide University. Jones had replied, “Yes, My Lord, with a load of bloody sand.”

St Peter's College, Adelaide

 

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. But he mostly made his name as a tearaway fast bowler in the annals of cricket. This well-built Aussie first set his foot on England in 1896. And he immediately proceeded to make his impact. George Giffen, the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and take 500 wickets in first-class cricket, also regarded him pretty highly. Giffen once said, “On the field his mission seems to be to make things hum.”

It was in the mid of May, 1896, that Jones bowled his first ball in England. The match was played against Lord Sheffield's XI at Sheffield Park, Sussex in front of a huge crowd of almost 25,000. Facing him was W.G. Grace, in his 48^th year. His first three balls hit the bearded maestro on the ribs. It seemed that he was just trying to create the ambience for his following act. According to his biographer Simon Rae, the fourth ball was the single most famous delivery that Grace had ever faced. Like an arrow, it passed straight through W.G. Grace’s bushy beard and flew to the boundary.

W.G. Grace

 

Non-striker Stanley Jackson later wrote in a newspaper article, “I can see W.G. now. He threw his head back which caused his beard to stick out.” 

The stony silence in the ground was broken by the shrill, high pitched voice of W.G., “What — what — what?” Harry Trott, the Aussie-skipper, started to wonder whether the very first over in England would plunge the tour into a diplomatic crisis. He looked at his fast big-burly fast bowler and shouted from point, “Steady, Jonah.” Jones glanced at the batsman and gave the reply, “Sorry, doctor, she slipped.” The post-match medical examination showed that Grace’s chest was rendered black and blue by some vicious deliveries from Jones. Jackson found one of his ribs broken.

Stanley Jackson

 

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.” The X-ray revealed that it was cracked horizontally. The doctor strapped him up heavily, and advised not to play for three weeks. As luck would have it, within a month of that fateful Sheffield Park match, he had to face Jones again at Lord’s. Before that match, Jones came to have a little word with Jackson. Apologetically he said, “I am terribly sorry”, and he clasped Jackson’s hand in a vice-like grip that left the latter wondering which was more painful — his hand or broken ribs.

As soon as the match started, Jones came into his grooving. He started to make the ball fly. The opposition batsmen had no other option to devise some indigenous methods to rescue themselves from the marauding speed-merchant. It resulted some hilarious moments on field, some of which were cheered and some were jeered by the crowd. C.B. Fry later recalled, “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.” The next man, William Gunn walked very slowly to the wicket. He took a bit of time to get settled. The first ball from Jones literally whizzed past his head. Few balls later, Gunn got the chance to return back to dressing room. It was an exact action-replay of the earlier dismissal. Gunn deliberately nudged it into the slips and, without waiting for the catch to be taken, started walking immediately.

A promo-poster featuring Shrewsbury

 

It seemed that he was pretty sure about getting caught. Sadly, their somewhat safety-first approach against Jones, didn’t impress the selectors. Both Shrewsbury and Gunn were dropped from the team for the next Test match.