In his latest trip, Richard H Thomas is keeping up with the Joneses as he pays tribute to a legendary England allrounder.
Ian Botham
… batted “like every boy and man in the land of dreams,” according to former Northants skipper Keith Andrew. Of course, Headingley ‘81 dominates the CV but there were so many other glorious contributions. There was Old Trafford and the rapid mopping up of the tail at Edgbaston in the same year; the ton and eight wickets in an innings at Lord’s against Pakistan in 1978; a century and 13 wickets in the match at Mumbai in 1980; or perhaps even his savaging of Merv Hughes at Brisbane in 1986/7. As a 17-year-old Botham helped an old stager carry a case of wine to a commentary box, and so began an unlikely and enduring friendship. Much later the two were neighbours in Alderney and Botham would receive a phone call at 9.06am each day, asking when he was coming over and told to “bring his thirst”. Together they would quaff a bottle or two of vintage red. That neighbour, for whom Botham confesses his adoration, was…
John Arlott
… who was never himself a cricketer of consequence but went on to become one of the game’s most revered commentators. He was a police sergeant when chosen to broadcast an address to the King on VE day and made key contacts at the BBC. Despite a cutting judgment from Head of Outside Broadcasts (“Your voice is vulgar but you have an interesting mind”), Arlott went on to commentate on every home Test from 1946 to 1980. When he called time on his career, calmly announcing “it’s 69 for two, nine runs off the over, 28 Boycott, 15 Gower, and after Trevor Bailey it’ll be Christopher Martin‑Jenkins”, the action stopped at Lord’s as players and crowd joined together to honour the man with the velvety Hampshire burr. In 1953, Arlott and others founded The Master’s Club, an organisation which despite having “no subscription, no officers, no speeches” had one perpetual guest of honour and a never-changing menu – the guest’s favourite: “soup, roast beef, apple pie and cream, cheese and celery”. The club convened each year on December 16, the birthday of the honoured guest…
Jack Hobbs
… the legendary England batsman. Doyen of cricket scribes Denzil Batchelor suggested that Hobbs before the Great War – “Hobbs I” – could cut any bowler “into ribbons” through “sheer youthful exuberance”. Post war, “Hobbs II” changed into a “cautious perfectionist” but scored almost 100 centuries after the age of 40 (in all he passed three figures 199 times). Hobbs II, suggested Batchelor, could still “lightly swish” fast bowlers through the covers “as if there had never been a Kaiser”. Gloriously flowery descriptions aside, Hobbs bats himself into any Greatest XI through sheer statistics and, because of the greater consistency in modern surfaces, as Benny Green concludes sadly, “his age is past and his type is extinct”. On the first day of 1908, he strolled out for the first time as an England player as Charles Macartney and Victor Trumper took strike for Australia. England captain that day was Frederick Fane, who was standing in for the injured…
Arthur Jones…
… whose whole cricket career, nay life, was blighted by injury and illness. Despite performing only moderately in an England sweater, Batchelor credits him as instilling “new style and spirit” in Nottinghamshire cricket; they won the Championship under his stewardship in 1907. Wisden described him as “rather slow to develop as a batsman” but when matured he was “essentially a brilliant player, his hitting on the offside being wonderfully fine”. He was also something of a polymath – he had his moments as both rugby union player and referee. A sickly constitution did for him in the end, though. Suffering from consumption, he found himself in a sanatorium in the last few days of 1915. “He went home, given up as incurable”, explains Wisden, “and the end came as a release from his sufferings”. He was just 42. He is by no means the only Jones to have been selected for England, of course. Another is Glamorgan stalwart….
Alan Jones…
… who made 36,000 runs for the Welsh county. A thoroughly reliable left hander – “nothing flashy or risky,” said John Arlott, but nevertheless “a splendid county cricketer” – who put duty first and took the helm as captain twice during the 70s and 80s when Glamorgan cricket was at its most self-destructive. He made 1,000 runs every season between 1961 and his retirement in 1983 and Arlott suggested that “there is no one of quite his old-fashioned quality in the game today”. Unsurprising then, that England should come calling for the rearranged Tests against the Rest of the World in 1970. “England have seldom been represented by a duller side,” wrote John Woodcock, but Geoff Boycott and Colin Cowdrey’s poor form and John Edrich’s injury meant a call-up for Jones. He made just five and zero, and reflected later that “…I simply had a bad game…. my misfortune is that my bad game happened to coincide with the biggest match of my career.” Still, at least he had been a Test cricketer, or at least he was until 1974 when the ICC rescinded the official Test status of the match. “It is a savage irony that his only selection for England was in the massive con trick – as cynical as any ever pulled in cricket,” concluded Arlott. Jones was Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1978, alongside… Ian Botham!
Click here to read Following On: Hayden To Hayden
