Les Jackson
Wisden's obituary for Les Jackson
15-Apr-2008
Jackson, Herbet Leslie, died on April 25, 2007, aged 86. Fred Trueman
described Les Jackson as the "best six-days-a-week bowler in county cricket", and
few batsmen looked forward to their examination by Jackson and Cliff Gladwin
when they visited Derby in the 1950s.
Jackson was fiercely accurate, and had
a waspish nip-backer which often found
its mark: "Even when I was scoring runs
I used to finish up with bruises,"
recalled Tom Graveney ruefully, adding
that when he saw Jackson in later years
he would instinctively start rubbing his
thighs. But despite his reputation,
Jackson won only two Test caps, 12
years apart.
Jackson came from the mining
village of Whitwell - he was to return
to the pits most winters, first as a collier
then as a driver - and played his early
cricket as a pro for Worksop. He had
one match for Derbyshire in 1947: the
captain Eddie Gothard didn't rate his
bowling, at least until the coach
shrewdly arranged for him to face it in
the nets. Then, aged 27, Jackson broke through, taking 65 wickets in 1948, and
120 in 1949. That year he was called up by England to face New Zealand at Old
Trafford in Alec Bedser's absence. He bowled tightly and took three wickets, but
it was not a huge surprise when he was left out of the next Test at The Oval -
Bedser was back, and England also wanted another spinner.
However, few imagined it would be a dozen years before Jackson would be
picked again: when Brian Statham was unfit for the Headingley Ashes Test of
1961. Again he let no one down: by then 40, he took four wickets as Australia
were beaten, producing a big off-cutter to dismiss the stubborn opener Colin
McDonald. But that was it, even though he had been a formidable and consistent
force in county cricket in the meantime. In the wet summer of 1958, hampered
by a groin strain, he cut down his pace a little and turned out to be almost
unplayable, collecting 143 wickets at just 10.99. He had an even more productive
season in 1960: 160 at 13.61.
Why was Jackson ignored for the entire 1950s? He had a slingy, round-arm
delivery which looked ungainly, and Freddie Brown, an influential selector in the
early 1950s, apparently thought Jackson couldn't come back for a second or third
spell. Fred Trueman was convinced that the even more powerful Gubby Allen
disliked Jackson's action and thought he wasn't fast enough. Trueman championed
his cause until he died and would get apoplectic when reminded of the selection
of the Middlesex amateur John Warr ahead of Jackson for Australia in 1950-51.
It might have been legitimate to look twice at wickets taken in Derbyshire, where
conditions were often very Jackson-friendly. But of his 1,670 wickets for the
county, a Derbyshire record, 860 came at home and 810 away, so the difference
was hardly significant. It may well be true, as was widely believed, that unfashionable
bowlers from unfashionable counties were at a disadvantage in that
era. And no one was more unfashionable than a Derbyshire pitman.
Of those 1,670 wickets (and 63 for other teams), 254 - including a hat-trick
of caught-behinds against Worcestershire in 1958 - were co-productions with
wicketkeeper George Dawkes, who looked not unlike him (see Wisden 2007, page
1548). An elderly lady in Southampton once tried to bash Dawkes with her brolly
after Jackson hit Vic Cannings of Hampshire. Before Jackson retired, though,
Dawkes had been replaced by Bob Taylor. "Les was a terrific bowler - quite sharp,
nippy off the wicket," Taylor recalled. "He had a slingy action, not unlike Jeff
Thomson's, and his arm was a bit low, but he was so accurate, and got a lot of
movement off the pitch rather than through the air. He was great to keep wicket
to, as the ball would always come through with the seam upright - with most
bowlers the seam bobbles about a bit and the ball can dip or swerve on you, but
with Les it just came straight through all the time, even if the batsman nicked
it." Among post-war bowlers, only Statham has taken more wickets at a lower
average than Jackson (17.36), and even he was less miserly. Almost a third of
Jackson's career overs were maidens.