John Abbotts (or Abbott) Smart (12 April 1891 – 3 October 1979) was an English first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. Smart was born in Forest Hill near

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, into a cricketing family. His father was a professional cricketer for

; and his brother

Cyril Smart Cyril Cecil Smart (23 July 1898 – 21 May 1975) was an English cricketer who played for Glamorgan and Warwickshire County Cricket Clubs between 1920 and 1946, featuring in 236 first-class cricket matches as a right-handed batsman and occasiona ...

played first-class cricket for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

and

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

, who set a world record in 1935 by hitting 32 runs off one over. Two other brothers played as professionals at clubs in Wales. Smart worked as a miner before becoming a professional county cricketer. He played

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for

from 1910 to 1912, and made his first-class cricket debut for

in 1919, playing alongside his brother Cyril from 1920 to 1922. He became a regular fixture in the Warwickshire side from 1920, playing 238 games in all. He began as an attacking batsman and occasional

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler, but became the team's

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

after the retirement of

Tiger Smith Ernest James "Tiger" Smith (6 February 1886 – 31 August 1979) was an English wicket-keeper who played in 11 Tests from 1911/1912 to 1914. In county cricket, he had a much longer career as the successor to Dick Lilley: he played for Warwicks ...

in 1930, catching 317 victims while standing behind the stumps and

stumping Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping crease ...

105 (in addition to 77 catches as an outfielder). He made 79 dismissals in 1932, a then county record which was bettered by

Geoff Humpage Geoffrey William Humpage (born 24 April 1954 in Sparkbrook, Birmingham) is a former England cricketer who played in three One Day Internationals in 1981. Humpage played in county cricket as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman and wicketkeeper f ...

in 1985. He scored a total of 3,425 runs in 340 innings, at the relatively low

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 11.53, including 9 half-centuries (four in 1923), and a high score of 68 not out against Worcestershire in 1922. He took 22 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 57.36, with best bowling of 3/31 against Northamptonshire in 1922. He played his last first-class cricket in 1936, and turned to umpiring the following year. He umpired 4 Test matches, all played in England, two involving

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1946 and two

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1947. He made his debut as a Test umpire in the 1st Test against India at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

in June 1946, standing with Herbert Baldwin. His second Test as umpire was the 3rd Test that August, at

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

, which was spoiled by rain. He also umpired the high-scoring but drawn 1st and 5th Tests against South Africa in 1947, at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also t ...

and the Oval. He finally retired in 1948. He died in

Bulkington Bulkington is a large village and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Bedworth, in the Nuneaton and Bedworth district of Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : In the 2011 census the ward ...

, near

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

, in Warwickshire.

References

External links

* *
Obituary
from ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1980 {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Jack 1891 births 1979 deaths Warwickshire cricketers English Test cricket umpires English cricketers Wiltshire cricketers Wicket-keepers