The Greatest Batsman You've Never Heard Of

The history of cricket is littered with untimely deaths. Some, such as Hedley Verity, Ken Farnes and Colin Blythe, were established players who were the victims of war, others, such as Ben Hollioake, were cut off in their prime, while others still never made it to first class cricket. In the 1953 Wisden the report of Hereford Cathedral School’s season starts with the matter of fact, if rather chilling, statement ‘An otherwise good season was marred by the death through polio just after the last match of MJ Allsebrook, who after three years as captain stood down for 1952 in favour of JT Harries’. Who knows how many potentially great cricketers were cut down without ever having the chance to fulfil their potential? In amongst these tragic stories, however, one stand out: the story of the batsman who some thought was better than Bradman.

Archie Jackson was born in Scotland in 1909 but shortly before his fourth birthday his father, who had spent his teenage years in Australia and had returned there eighteen months previously, brought the family over to join him in New South Wales. Money was tight in the Jackson family – the story has it that young Archie only had one pair of trousers that his mother would threaten to confiscate if he was naughty – but his father made him his first bat and soon the boy was fixated with cricket, playing in the street until it was dark and doing everything that he could to watch his heroes in action.

It also swiftly became apparent that he had a rare and precocious talent and he joined Balmain cricket club, where he came under the wing of legendary leg spinner Arthur Mailey. At the age of sixteen he topped the Sydney grade cricket averages and the following summer, having started the season with two centuries, he made his first class debut at the tender age of seventeen, scoring eighty-six in the second innings and following this with his first two first class hundreds.

Many contemporaries compared Jackson to Victor Trumper, but it was the graceful Alan Kippax who was his mentor and probably a better comparison in terms of technique and style. Kippax acted as team mate, coach and employer to the young man who seemed to have the world at his feet. To give some idea of the esteem in which he was held, Don Bradman’s first class debut for New South Wales came only after Jackson withdrew from the side with a boil on his knee. 

The 1928-29 Ashes were a chastening experience for Australia. In spite of the debut of Don Bradman, who made eighteen and one, they were thumped in the first test and the second test, for which Bradman was dropped, was scarcely any better. The England attack, lead by Harold Larwood, Maurice Tate and Jack White, was exceptionally strong and Wally Hammond was in scintillating form in a series in which he would score a total of 905 runs. The third test, with the returning Bradman contributing seventy-nine and one hundred and twelve, was a much closer affair, but England successfully chased 332 for a three wicket win and the retention of the Ashes. 

For the fourth test the Australian selectors rang the changes once more and brought in the nineteen year old Archie Jackson to replace Vic Richardson. His first action was to field while England scored 334, largely thanks to an unbeaten hundred from Hammond, but on the second day his chance came, opening the batting with future captain Bill Woodfull. 

The Australian innings started disastrously, Woodfull, Stork Hendry and Jackson’s great friend Kippax all dismissed by the time the score reached nineteen. The debutant could have been forgiven for collapsing under the pressure, but he and Jack Ryder steadied things with a partnership of 126 and then, with support from Bradman and a’Beckett, Jackson flourished. With his score on ninety-seven he drove Harold Larwood, who later said that it was as fast a ball as he had ever bowled, to the cover boundary for four to bring up a dazzling debut century. Although he was tiring – Stork Hendry is said to have commented on how exhausted he looked at tea – he carried on until finally Jack White trapped him leg before for 164 made out of 287. Although his efforts earned Australia a slim first innings lead, another hundred from Hammond meant that a heroic fourth innings run chase to which Jackson contributed thirty-six was in vain as they finished just twelve runs short. 

As it turned out, however, the exhaustion that Jackson felt was more telling than the ease and grace with which he made his runs. The 1929-30 season saw the start of his ill-health as he missed a significant amount of cricket, although his 182 in the trial match secured his place in the 1930 touring party to England. Once in England he struggled both with his health and with his form in unfamiliar conditions. In his foreword to David Frith’s long out-of-print ‘The Archie Jackson Story’, Harold Larwood wrote that:

‘we had a feeling that something was amiss with this young fellow in 1930. Those of us who were closely associated with him knew that the English climate did not suit him; he was not himself. He still batted with the same charm that only he was capable of, but it was apparent that he was not the same Archie as that of 1928-29’

Jackson only played two tests on that tour, failing at Headingley as Bradman made his first test triple century, and then making a brave seventy-three at the Oval. To quote Larwood again:

‘I remember once, in England during the 1930 series, in scoring 73 at the Oval in the fifth Test, he was taking quite a physical beating. As he came down the wicket to level a high spot or two he said: `Well, Harold, it's only a game, but what a grand one we're having today! I hope you're enjoying our battle as much as those spectators seem to be. You know, you've hit me almost as many times as I've hit you! I wish you'd drop one a little off line occasionally.' I never knew him to flinch or complain at any time.’

Back in Australia, he played with varying success in the first four tests against the West Indies in 1930-31, but unknown to anyone at the time this would be his last involvement in first class cricket. He began 1931-32 season in good form for Balmain and was selected for New South Wales but had to withdraw from the side after collapsing, coughing up blood. Initially he thought that he was suffering from influenza, but by July 1932 he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and admitted to hospital. 

In an attempt to combat the disease he moved to the warmer weather of Brisbane and for a time he seemed to be making some sort of recovery, playing some club cricket, albeit sometimes with a runner, but in early February 1933 he collapsed again. On 16^th February, the day on which England regained the Ashes at Brisbane, he died, having sent a congratulatory telegram to Harold Larwood. This was the bodyline series, a tactic that, unsurprisingly given his exchange with Larwood at the Oval, Jackson considered to be entirely legitimate. 

Archie Jackson was twenty-three when he died and had played just eight test matches, never again reaching the heights of that spectacular debut. His batsmanship is now largely forgotten, memories crushed by the brevity of his career and the achievements of Bradman, but he deserves to be remembered as more than just the greatest ‘what if?’ in cricket history but as a great batsman in his own right.