Davies Jack Image 1 Kent 1938

Description

Broad Clyst, Devon born all-rounder Jack Davies was a right-handed batsman and right-arm off spin bowler who was educated at Tonbridge School in Kent where he was in the Cricket XI for four years, captaining the side in 1930, his final year. He was strong academically and won a scholarship to study Classics at St John’s College, Cambridge. He won a cricket Blue in 1933 and 1934 after an ankle injury forced him to pull out of the University Match in 1931. Davies made his first class cricket debut for Cambridge University in a match against Yorkshire at Fenner’s in 1931. Academically he was awarded a first class honours degree, graduating in 1934. He played 38 first class matches for the University side, including against touring sides from New Zealand, The West Indies and Australia. It was against Australia in 1934 that he achieved his most notable feat when he bowled Don Bradman for a duck, the first time Bradman had made nought in England.

Davies went on to play 99 times for Kent, making his County Championship debut after graduating from Cambridge in July 1934. He had first played for the County’s Second XI in 1932 in the Minor Counties Championship and played in the First XI as an amateur until 1951, primarily during his summer holidays. He won his County cap in 1936 when he took 7-20 against Essex at the Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells. He was described in his Wisden obituary as a “stylish and dashing right-hand batsman” who usually batted in the middle order, although he opened the batting for Kent successfully for a time in 1946, scoring three of his four centuries and scoring 1,000 runs for the only time in his career during the season, when he also made his highest score of 168 for Kent against Worcestershire at Worcester. He was an effective bowler who took 258 wickets in his first-class career and a “brilliant cover point” in the field.

After retiring from County cricket he played for M.C.C. in the annual first class match against Cambridge University from 1953 to 1961, captaining the side on the last seven occasions and playing his final first class match aged 49. He had played in a match for an England side against the Dominions in 1945 and was mentioned in a list of potential England batsmen in the 1945 edition of Wisden. He also made one appearance in The Gentlemen v The Players fixture in 1946. He played club cricket for Blackheath after the Second World War and was a member of the wandering Buccaneers Cricket Club.

In 153 first class matches he scored 5,982 runs at an average of 23.92 with 4 centuries and 30 half centuries. His bowling claimed 258 wickets at 30.41 apiece, with 6 five wicket innings and a single ten wicket match.

Away from cricket, Davies played rugby union for Blackheath and for Kent in the winter months. He captained Blackheath in 1938-39 and in 1945-46. Davies won the Rugby Fives national singles title three times between 1936 and 1939, having finished as runner-up in 1935. He was a runner-up in the Cyriax Cup, the Rugby Fives pairs competition, in 1939.

He served in the War Office in the Second World War , becoming Chief Psychologist in the Directorate for the Selection of Personnel and rising to the rank of Colonel. He was awarded an OBE in the 1946 Birthday Honours. Davies was elected Treasurer of Cambridge University Cricket Club in 1958 and was a member of the M.C.C. Committee, becoming Treasurer from 1976 to 1980 and President in 1985-1986. He was later elected one of M.C.C.’s Honorary Life Vice-Presidents in 1988, only the tenth person to be honoured in this way. He was elected in the same year as Don Bradman.

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