Les Jackson
Encyclopedia
Les Jackson was an English
cricket
er. A fast or fast-medium bowler renowned for his accurate bowling and particular hostility on uncovered wickets, he played county cricket
for Derbyshire
from 1947 to 1963, and was regularly at, or near the top of, the English bowling averages. He played in only two Test matches
for England, one in 1949 and a second in 1961. Jackson’s absence from Test cricket was largely because his batting was so underdeveloped. Jackson’s highest first-class score was 39 not out, and he reached 30 on only one other occasion, whereas his leading competitors like Trueman
, Tyson
, or even teammate Gladwin
, were far better batsmen.
Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted, "it is one of cricket's great crimes that Les Jackson, a most respected fast bowler on the circuit throughoutthe 1950s, played only twice for England. It is said that his slingy, hostile action and his blunt opinions did not please the MCC
but in an era when Alec Bedser
carried England's attack on his own, Jackson's omission was a scandalous loss". Bateman added that Jackson, ".. was as feared as Truemen and Tyson in county cricket".
in Derbyshire
, the youngest of thirteen children. His eldest brother had been killed in World War I
; another brother was one of eighty who perished in the Creswell colliery disaster in 1950.
He was educated at Whitwell Church of England School, and became a miner
at the age of 16. His father was a cricketer, and Jackson began his cricket career at Whitwell Cricket Club, where, until his demise, he could still be found on the occasional Saturday watching them play.
He was genuinely quick from a slingy action, and remarkably accurate and economical. He was able to swing the ball both ways and move off the seam, and his 6 foot height enabled him to make the ball lift awkwardly from just short of a length. He bowled from a short run-up, which enabled him to continue bowling for lengthy periods, and was particularly difficult to play on the uncovered wickets used in county cricket. He became a professional with Worksop in 1947, playing in the Bassetlaw League. He joined Derbyshire
later in the 1947 season
, making his first-class
debut against Kent
on 5 July 1947. He formed formidable bowling partnerships with Cliff Gladwin
, and then with Harold Rhodes
, both also England Test players. In the 1949 season
, his second full season after joining Derbyshire, he took 120 wickets at a bowling average
of 20.41. After a successful Test trial, taking 6-37, he was selected in 1949 for the third Test against New Zealand
at Old Trafford. He made his Test debut alongside Brian Close
, opening the bowling with Trevor Bailey
while the first choice fast bowler, Alec Bedser
, was rested. Jackson met with some success, taking 2 for 47 and 1 for 25, but the match was drawn and he was replaced by Bedser for the fourth and deciding Test. He was not chosen to tour Australia in 1950-51, losing out to John Warr
. He toured to India instead with a Commonwealth side, but returned home early with an elbow injury. He played in another Test trial in 1950, but was unable to make much of an impression, as Jim Laker
took 8 wickets for 2 runs.
In the 1958 season
, he took 143 wickets at an average of 10.99 runs per wicket, an economy rate not seen since the days of S.F. Barnes
before World War I, and not equalled by a regular first-class bowler since. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in 1959. He took a further 140 wickets in 1959, and then 160 at 13.61 in 1960. In all, he passed 100 wickets in 10 domestic seasons. Fred Trueman
described Jackson as "The best six-days-a-week bowler in county cricket".
He had to wait twelve years to play his second Test, perhaps due to prejudice by the England captain Freddie Brown in early years, and of England selector Gubby Allen
later. He was finally selected for the third Test against the 1961 Australians
at Headingley, when he was 40 years old. Again, he was chosen to replace the first-choice fast bowler, Brian Statham
, who had a side strain, and again he provided able support, this time to Trueman, taking 2 for 57 and 2 for 26, as England won by eight wickets. Statham came back for the final two Tests, and Jack Flavell
was picked ahead of Jackson. He never played Test cricket again. The 12-year gap between his appearances is the longest of any England Test player with only two caps.
He retired from Derbyshire at the end of the 1963 season, having taken more wickets for Derbyshire than any other bowler, a record that still stands (1,733 first-class wickets at 17.36 apiece). He played for Enfield
in the Lancashire League in 1964, and then played for Undercliffe in the Bradford League
from 1965 to 1970. He played his last game for Derbyshire on 5 July 1970, at the age of 49, a 40-overs match against the MCC
commemorating the centenary of their match at Lord's
in 1870. He was elected President of the Derbyshire Players' Association in 1995.
He continued mining in the winter through much of his cricketing career, later becoming a chauffeur for the National Coal Board
until 1982. His death, in Chesterfield
, Derbyshire, after a short illness was announced on Test Match Special
on 25 April 2007, less than three weeks after his 86th birthday. He married his wife, Norma, in 1942; she died in 1991. He was survived by their daughter.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. A fast or fast-medium bowler renowned for his accurate bowling and particular hostility on uncovered wickets, he played county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
for Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
from 1947 to 1963, and was regularly at, or near the top of, the English bowling averages. He played in only two Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England, one in 1949 and a second in 1961. Jackson’s absence from Test cricket was largely because his batting was so underdeveloped. Jackson’s highest first-class score was 39 not out, and he reached 30 on only one other occasion, whereas his leading competitors like Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
, Tyson
Frank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
, or even teammate Gladwin
Cliff Gladwin
Clifford Gladwin was an English cricketer, who played for Derbyshire from 1939 to 1958, and in eight Tests for England from 1947 to 1949...
, were far better batsmen.
Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted, "it is one of cricket's great crimes that Les Jackson, a most respected fast bowler on the circuit throughoutthe 1950s, played only twice for England. It is said that his slingy, hostile action and his blunt opinions did not please the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
but in an era when Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
carried England's attack on his own, Jackson's omission was a scandalous loss". Bateman added that Jackson, ".. was as feared as Truemen and Tyson in county cricket".
Life and career
Herbert Leslie Jackson was born in the mining village of WhitwellWhitwell, Derbyshire
Whitwell is a small village located in Derbyshire, England.Although Whitwell celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in the 'Whitwell 1000' Celebrations of 1989 it is much older than this celebration suggests.The earliest written references to Whitwell are from the Anglo-Saxon charters however many of...
in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, the youngest of thirteen children. His eldest brother had been killed in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
; another brother was one of eighty who perished in the Creswell colliery disaster in 1950.
He was educated at Whitwell Church of England School, and became a miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
at the age of 16. His father was a cricketer, and Jackson began his cricket career at Whitwell Cricket Club, where, until his demise, he could still be found on the occasional Saturday watching them play.
He was genuinely quick from a slingy action, and remarkably accurate and economical. He was able to swing the ball both ways and move off the seam, and his 6 foot height enabled him to make the ball lift awkwardly from just short of a length. He bowled from a short run-up, which enabled him to continue bowling for lengthy periods, and was particularly difficult to play on the uncovered wickets used in county cricket. He became a professional with Worksop in 1947, playing in the Bassetlaw League. He joined Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
later in the 1947 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1947
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1947 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for seventy-six years. It was their forty-third season in the County Championship and they won twelve matches and lost ten to finish fifth in the County Championship.-1947...
, making his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut against Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
on 5 July 1947. He formed formidable bowling partnerships with Cliff Gladwin
Cliff Gladwin
Clifford Gladwin was an English cricketer, who played for Derbyshire from 1939 to 1958, and in eight Tests for England from 1947 to 1949...
, and then with Harold Rhodes
Harold Rhodes (cricketer)
Harold James Rhodes, sometimes called Dusty Rhodes is an English former cricketer, who played for England in 1959, for Derbyshire between 1953 and 1975, and for the MCC between 1959 and 1963...
, both also England Test players. In the 1949 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1949
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1949 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for seventy-eight years. It was their forty-fifth season in the County Championship and they won six matches in the County Championship to finish in fifteenth place.-1949...
, his second full season after joining Derbyshire, he took 120 wickets at a bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 20.41. After a successful Test trial, taking 6-37, he was selected in 1949 for the third Test against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
at Old Trafford. He made his Test debut alongside Brian Close
Brian Close
Dennis Brian Close , usually known as Brian Close, is a former cricketer who is the youngest man ever to play Test cricket for England. He was picked for the Test team to play against New Zealand, in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England,...
, opening the bowling with Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
while the first choice fast bowler, Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
, was rested. Jackson met with some success, taking 2 for 47 and 1 for 25, but the match was drawn and he was replaced by Bedser for the fourth and deciding Test. He was not chosen to tour Australia in 1950-51, losing out to John Warr
John Warr
John James Warr is an English former cricketer. He played in two Test matches for England.His Test bowling average remains the worst of any English player, but Warr turned it into comic relief in his highly humorous after dinner speeches.-Life and career:He played for Middlesex as a right-arm...
. He toured to India instead with a Commonwealth side, but returned home early with an elbow injury. He played in another Test trial in 1950, but was unable to make much of an impression, as Jim Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
took 8 wickets for 2 runs.
In the 1958 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1958
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1958 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing eighty-seven years. It was their fifty-fourth season in the County Championship and they won nine matches in the County Championship to finish fifth.-1958 season:Derbyshire...
, he took 143 wickets at an average of 10.99 runs per wicket, an economy rate not seen since the days of S.F. Barnes
Sydney Barnes
Sydney Francis Barnes was an English professional cricketer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the sport's history...
before World War I, and not equalled by a regular first-class bowler since. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in 1959. He took a further 140 wickets in 1959, and then 160 at 13.61 in 1960. In all, he passed 100 wickets in 10 domestic seasons. Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
described Jackson as "The best six-days-a-week bowler in county cricket".
He had to wait twelve years to play his second Test, perhaps due to prejudice by the England captain Freddie Brown in early years, and of England selector Gubby Allen
Gubby Allen
Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen, CBE was a cricketer who played for Middlesex, Cambridge University, MCC and England. Australian-born, Allen was a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, who captained England in eleven Test matches...
later. He was finally selected for the third Test against the 1961 Australians
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
at Headingley, when he was 40 years old. Again, he was chosen to replace the first-choice fast bowler, Brian Statham
Brian Statham
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE was one of the leading English fast bowlers in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast...
, who had a side strain, and again he provided able support, this time to Trueman, taking 2 for 57 and 2 for 26, as England won by eight wickets. Statham came back for the final two Tests, and Jack Flavell
Jack Flavell
Jack Flavell was an English cricketer who played in four Tests for England from 1961 to 1964. His county cricket career was spent with Worcestershire, with whom Flavell won two County Championship titles...
was picked ahead of Jackson. He never played Test cricket again. The 12-year gap between his appearances is the longest of any England Test player with only two caps.
He retired from Derbyshire at the end of the 1963 season, having taken more wickets for Derbyshire than any other bowler, a record that still stands (1,733 first-class wickets at 17.36 apiece). He played for Enfield
Enfield Cricket Club
Enfield Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Dill Hall Lane in Accrington. For the 2011 season its captain is Adam Bracewell, and its professional is Werner Coetsee of South Africa. The club has won the league on 5 occasions and the cup on 4...
in the Lancashire League in 1964, and then played for Undercliffe in the Bradford League
Bradford Cricket League
The Bradford Cricket League is an amateur cricket competition centred in Bradford, West Yorkshire...
from 1965 to 1970. He played his last game for Derbyshire on 5 July 1970, at the age of 49, a 40-overs match against the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
commemorating the centenary of their match at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
in 1870. He was elected President of the Derbyshire Players' Association in 1995.
He continued mining in the winter through much of his cricketing career, later becoming a chauffeur for the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
until 1982. His death, in Chesterfield
Chesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...
, Derbyshire, after a short illness was announced on Test Match Special
Test Match Special
Test Match Special is a British radio programme covering professional cricket, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 , Five Live Sports Extra and the internet to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world...
on 25 April 2007, less than three weeks after his 86th birthday. He married his wife, Norma, in 1942; she died in 1991. He was survived by their daughter.