By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 21^st 2025)

The 1902 Series

Charles (CB) Fry was back for the 1902 series against Australia. It began in Birmingham. Jim Phillips, the umpire who waged war on chucking stood in the series. Fry made a duck and didn’t bowl. Ranjitsinhji didn’t trouble the scorers much either. Jones took three wickets, including Fry’s. The Second Test at Lord’s was ruined by the weather. England made 102 for 2 – both Ranjitsinhji and Fry were dismissed for ducks.

Neither Ranjitsinhji nor Jones played in the Third Test Match at Sheffield, which Australia won – Fry failed with bat, scoring just 1 and 4. Neither Fry nor Jones played in the Fourth Test Match at Manchester – Ranjitsinhji failed with the bat and Australia won by just 3 runs to take the series. None of Jones, Fry and Ranjitsinhji played in the Fifth Test Match at the Oval – the famous one where England won by one wicket thanks to George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes.

The Chucking Controversy

Later in 1902 Australia toured South Africa. Ernest Jones, long suspected of being a chucker, and after he had been no-balled by umpire James Phillips, not only toured, but played – the Aboriginal Jack Marsh did not. Marsh never played for Australia.

England’s captain, Archibald MacLaren, refused to allow Marsh to play in the Bathurst game, citing the fact that umpires William Curran and Bob Crockett had no-balled Marsh for throwing previously, even though Marsh proved he was not a chucker with the use of a splint over Curran’s actions.

However, umpire James Phillips called Ernest Jones for throwing – he was the first bowler to be no-balled for chucking. Nevertheless, Jones continued playing Test Matches for Australia from that moment of disgrace in the 1897-98 tour of his country until his last Test Match, which was against South Africa in October 1902.

Meanwhile, MacLaren had recently had to deal with the Arthur Mold chucking controversy in England, which he did gently. Mold, had been thought of as a chucker for years. All the county captains bar MacLaren wanted something done about it – a ban was considered. However, MacLaren supported Mold, but after Phillips no-balled Mold several times in a match, Mold’s days were numbered. His career ended after the 1902 English season.

Meanwhile, another chucker’s career was drawing to a close. Jones took 3 for 78 in the first innings of the First Test Match against South Africa and 1 for 22 in the second innings. It was the last of Jones’ 19 Test Matches – he had taken 64 wickets for 1857 runs, at an average of 29.01 runs per wicket with a strike rate of 58.6 balls per wicket.

The match was drawn with South Africa at 101 for 4 while chasing 215. Montague (Monty) Noble played in that series, including in the first Test Match. After playing a key role with MacLaren in preventing Marsh from getting a chance, neither had a problem with playing with Jones five years after he became the first bowler no-balled for chucking in a Test Match.

Without Jones, Australia won the Second Test Match at Johannesburg by 159 runs, exactly the score Warwick Armstrong made when he carried his bat in Australia’s second innings. The tourists also won the Third Test Match in Cape Town by 10 wickets.