Jeff Jones (born Ivor Jeffrey Jones, 10 December 1941) is a Welsh former

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 str ...

er, who took forty-four wickets in fifteen Test matches for the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

between 1964 and 1968. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman remarked, "South Wales is hardly renowned for fast bowlers but in 1960 a powerfully built left-armer joined the Glamorgan staff and caused undiluted excitement. Unassuming and popular, Jeff Jones introduced a destructive force into Glamorgan's cricket it had never seen before".

Life and career

Jones was born in

Dafen, Carmarthenshire Dafen is a village situated east of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales, part of the Llanelli Rural community. Dafen borders the villages of Felinfoel (Bryngwyn-Mawr), Bryn, Penceilogi, and Pemberton. Dafen is also an electoral ward, electing ...

. He was a left-arm

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

who in 1965 took five wickets before conceding a run against Leicestershire at

Grace Road Grace Road, known for sponsorship reasons as the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road, is a cricket ground in Leicester, England. It is the home ground and administrative base of Leicestershire County Cricket Club. History Leicestershire ...

, finishing with 8 for 11. The consensus was that there was no faster bowler in county cricket at that time. His wickets did not always come cheaply, as Jones was prone to be erratic at times, but at his best he was a handful for any batsman. In the 1965-66 Ashes series he was England's top wicket taker, with 15 (at 35.53), taking 6 for 118 in the Fourth Test. He made his highest Test score of 16 in the Third Test, adding 55 for the last wicket with David Allen. His most famous batting moment came in Georgetown, Guyana in 1967-68 when, batting at his usual position at number eleven, he played out the last over of the match bowled by

Lance Gibbs Lancelot Richard Gibbs (born 29 September 1934) is a former West Indies cricketer, one of the most successful spin bowlers in Test cricket history. He took 309 Test wickets, only the second player (after Fred Trueman) to pass 300, the first spi ...

, to ensure that England escaped from the match with a draw, to secure a 1-0 series win over the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. This was to be his last Test, and his first-class career also finished in 1968, after an elbow injury ended his time prematurely at the age of 26. He left cricket to find an occupation in brewing. His son, Simon Jones, a right-arm fast bowler for Glamorgan, also played Test cricket for England.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jeff 1941 births Living people England Test cricketers Glamorgan cricketers Welsh cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers