G. L. Jessop Credited With The Most Dynamic Test Innings In History

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 3 (Supplement)

G. L. Jessop Credited With The Most Dynamic Test Innings In History

There no crrUiqaake, "It's enly .Tcs:.op cores in to bat/' ! , That r.cicd cricket writer, Neville CrrcHr. fell'; mere diverting Etc-ries ab:iU the game in his reiwnirr«rcc' jr-üblirhed in the Mel- ; bourne "Glcb"." Cardus awards the palm to Gilbert Jcsscp aa the most dynamic hitter cJ them all. I watched n- first first-da?.- crickct ! match in Jim-. I X W, at Old Tr afford ! iwrite*; Nevil- 1 ;irdu-i. [ was then a boy of nine, and I was not partieu'arly interested in encket. my love was for j lootbal!- ; I cannot rur.uiil'i'r what was the, impulse that *>■ ><- nif to Old TraiTord i on a glcuir.y Junmorning forty-one j vears ago. i stoo'l? outside the gates ; and read a f>»rli:ddii:g notice. j YOU ENTER AT VOIR OWN I ri£k or Tin: weather, no! money returned A menacing warning at Old Traftord : iif : all the mo: -: places i t the earth. I j risked my sixpence- -yes, in those ; halcyon days you could watch great ; players at sixpence a time ' T entered •

tne ramous ground where in arter years 1 wis to spend many a happy hour: I entered Old 'l rafford. where . A. NHflrnby and Barlow used to bat together, inspiring Francis Thompson to the composition of the most beautiful poerri ever written about a game. . . . And the field 'is full M shades as I near the shadowy coasr. And t see a ghostly batsmen play the bowling of a ghost: And T took through my rears on the windless. clapping host. As the run-stealers flicker to and fro, to and fro: 0 my'Hornby and my Barlow long afo? ' Frcphecy Recalled. U f hen I got into the ground, on this notable morning in my life. I went s'.rajgh't to the refreshments bar—no, 'iiis was not an early omen : I merely "anted to buy a sandwich and some linger-beer before the rush at the lunch I'Mir.' '

And as I reached on tip-toe to the

'Hater to collict my food and drink. :here' was a sudden crash, a sudden v prqsion and catastrophe. I thought

'world had come to an end

In this very year of 1599. a certain 'Wraan scientist, Professor Falb, had prophesied that the *vorld would comc to an-end on November 13, 1899.

Welt; when the explosion occurred in the;re'frcshrnent bar at Old Trafford on June 26, 1899. and splinters of glass flew about.roe. I imagined that the professor had got the date wrong by only a few months. And as T trembled from head to,foot a Lancashire man in cloth cap. standing at the bar. comforted me: It's all reight. sonny," he said. "Ndwt.'s the matter. It's only Jessop Come in to bat."

A strange ironical way of becoming introduced to county cricket at Old Trafford, where during later years Lancashire and Yorkshire . matches were fotifh't in grim silencc. Jessop . was playijl.g for' Gloucestershire .against my native county when "ft EioiSshed. bottles of beer and plate .and gave, me my baptism.. And ortrthe morning that Ilitler marched into Poland I was also watching Lan-

i-ashirc at Old Traftord. so the j wheel 01 my many days thc°-un i came lull c.rcle. Maji of Demeanour. A- MacLaren was Lancashire's caplam m those days. Australia rememLers him. He was one of the greatest batsmen England ha. known; he was ■ certainly the most magnificent in demeanour. He held himself at the ; wicket like a Roman Emperor He hvrs master of all he-surveyed. , I have reen him hooking the fast ! bowling of Ernest Jones with the most | imperial gesture - - he did not hit or j nook the ball, in tact: he dismissed it i from his presence. A year or two ego. "[ discussed A. C. ; MacLr-.ren with ;-n Australian plaver joi wide renown. He said that Archie .was the greatest man he ever saw' on ja cricket field. lie alwavs scored a j century at Sydney. Once in a test i match there he won the toss on a | pcrt'ect wicket, and cayne out to bat with Tom Ilayward. As usual, he took the first ball — Ernest Jones was the j bowler. Archie asked for his guard, marked the spot, and then looked j majestically round th? field, for the : men on the fence. But Jce Darling j had put three fields close in round Archie's legs—a Hp-trap in cmhrvn. ! Archie addressed himself to Darling: "Joe." he said, "what's the meaning of this?"

Net Impressed. Joe replied. " What's the meaning of what. Arch*-:?" "Why—-what are these , men doing here, all round me?" "That's my field for vou. Archie.'* said Darling. And MacLarcn. with a spacious wave of hir- bat. said, " Joe--take them away!'' " But. Archie." Darling, persisted. " I can set my field as I like: so get on with the game " " Take them away. Joe." repeated Archie, with another sweeping, flourish of his bat; "how can I .be expected to perform my celebrated hook stroke, with these damn people under my feet. Take them away. Joe." Darling declined to change the field, so MacLaren drove -Jones straight for fours in the opening and whirlwind overs. Then Dcrling removed a man from the "leg-trap" and sent him into the "deep." "Thanks." said MacLaren: " thanks very much. Joe: now we can get on with the proceedings" Great and commanding though MacLaren was as a personal force and presence: subtle though he was as a captain: he was not fortunate as a leader of English teams to victory England's Greatest. Vet in 1902. at - Birmingham. MacLaren captained a side which 1 think was the strongest that has ever represented England. If my memory is not shaky (and I am writing thousands of miles from my-beloved library), the English team at Birmingham was constituted as follows.--

A. C. MacLaren Braund t\ B. Fry G. L. J^ssop Tyldesley (J. T.) Lillev' K. S. Ranjitsinhji Lc.ckwood F. S. Jackson Rhodes Hirst You will observe that Rhodes batted last for England. lie was. next to Colin Blythe. the greatest slow lefthanded bowler in England.• He was not content with this honour. To the amusement of his colleagues, he expressed the intention of.one day opening the innings for England. The dream in time came true—as' Melbourne well knows. He was the companion of Hobbs in a first-wicket stand of more than 300. It was Rhodes who went in last for England in the filth test match oi the season of 1902—h; went in last when England wanted -15 to win. England had lost the fourth game of this rubber, a month earlier, at Manchester, by three runs. And when Rhodes arrived at the wicket at Kennington Oval, in I this 'excruciating fifth test, his colleague was of his own county, none other than George . • Hirst. who I approached him and gave him tatherly advice, while the crowd : waited and ' trembled.

"NV lit rid. said George, "well get these 1.5 runs in single?. And if thee out Ah 11 warm thee!"

rbs runs were duly, if slowly, obtained, and while the singles trickled agonisingly over the grass, one of the grent statesmen of the Empire walked agitatedly about behind the pavilion, where he could not see a thing: and when somebody approached him, he said: " Don't tell me— I can't bear to hear; don't tell me, please!" Unleashed Fury. *1 he Oval test match of 1902 was as remarkable as the Old Trafford struggle of the same season. On the closing day England needed some 240 to win. I'ivc wickets Icll lor less than ">0 the cream of English batsmanship. Now occurred Jessop's immortal ride of the storm, lie scored 101 in an hour and a quarter. When he reached the wicket the Australian attack was deadly in its accuracy, and the field moved like inexorable parts of a destroying machine. Ten minutes after the onslaught of Jessop, the Australian bowlers were all fingers and thumbs; the field was a rabble, with people bumping into one another. * Jessoj* unleashed fury. The crowd went mad. Old and dignified representatives of well-preserved families, peers of the. realm, and authentic bishops — they broke their umbrellas, stood on their seats, and behaved like ordinary and emotional human beings. As I look back on this stupendous innings of Jessop. my imagination pictures the Oval that day as a place suddenly hit by an earthquake, with all the Kennington gasometers blowing up.

When Jessop lost his wicket, after seventy-five minutes of destruction, he walked off ■ the field leaving visible wreckage behind him. lie had played

the most dramatic and the most original innings in all the history of test matches.

I have heard young modern sceptics referring to Jessop as a " slogger." Nonsense. Any cricketer who has ever in his life been called upon to tackle first-class bowling knows well that no "slogger" could possibly have made Jessop's innumerable' swift and large scores—the bulk of them against the finest length-bowlers of all time. Imagine a mere hitter surviving ten minutes of Iliighie Trumble on a re sponsive wicket!

Rapidity Deceived. Admittedly an innings by Jeswop was a cyclone of batsmanship. Well, at the centre of even the wildest cyclone there is a calm pivotal spot, a central place of balance. So .in a Jessop innings; round and over the field would sweep its fury, but deep in the heart of the hurricane was the cool wind of Jessop, weighing chances, making decisions, as judicioush' as a Hobbs or a Bradman. It was the rapidity of Jessop'a strokes which deceived us. Because of the and velocity of his strokes, we sometimes jumped to the conclusion that he was playing riskily. Had we been able to look at Jessop in "slow motion" (he played before the advent of the cinema), we should have seen that the majority of his strokes were scientifically executed.

He was a master of the cut. The secret of quick scoring depends on the cut. If-a batsman can cut, the bowler is afraid to pitch short—as a consequence, he is likely to overpitch, and then, poor soul, a quick-footed panther of a batsman of Jessop's voracity simply swallows him whole. • When Jessop came to the wicket, four or five fieldsmen walked far away into the " deep." The stumper became excited, and the square-leg umpire thought sadly of his home and his family. And the crowd buzzed and bubbled. Jessop was not successful m Australia: the fast wickets of the 19011902 period defeated his hook. But his death-or-glory century in an honour and a quarter at Kennington Oval in 1902, against Trumble, Noble, Saunders—to name only three bowlers —is written in letters of gold for all time in the book of cricket. And, as I say, he made me think the world had come to an end on niy first day at Old TraSord.