THE CAREFREE fun of a game against Mr Baker’s XI was a pleasant enough way to pass the time but Percy Jeeves was a cricketer of serious talent. And, to the delight of his team-mates, he showed his abilities to the full when the cricket was taken seriously – or far too seriously.
Hull Wilberforce’s next visit to the Pleasure Grounds was a rancorous affair in which tempers became frayed. Young Jeeves simply let his cricket do the talking.
After Goole made 140 (Jeeves 35, Dr Dooley 38), the visitors disagreed with some umpiring decisions early in their reply, so simply ignored them. Two of their top-order batsmen were adjudged out, caught off Jeeves, but stood their ground. Wilberforce’s best batsman, Wilson, was then bowled by Horsnell but refused to leave the crease after the non-striker insisted to him that the ball had missed the stumps and rebounded on to them off the pads of wicketkeeper Latham. Wilson would not go.
Held in contempt by the fielding team now, in the next over, Wilson ran a single and went down to face Jeeves. In the circumstances, with danders up, the batsman probably expected his young opponent to let him have the fastest ball he had got. Instead, down came a beautifully-disguised slower delivery which foxed the batsman completely. He swished and missed but, to howls of anguish from the fielders, the ball missed off stump by an inch. Wilson survived again.
Not for long. The next ball was the fastest of the day and sent two stumps flying.
“The batsman never saw anything but a wrecked wicket,” reported a triumphant Spectator, “and as Latham was contemplating the wreckage with undisguised satisfaction from a three-yard distance, there could be no doubt about it.”
That was one of four wickets for Jeeves, who led his team-mates back into the pavilion after Wilberforce were all out for 94, beaten by 46 runs. Jeeves continued to tower above his modestly-talented teammates. On 15 August he hit 54 (retired) for Goole Thursday against Goole Police. Two days later, for the seconds at Saltmarshe, he took 5-10 to rattle the home side all out for 25. The visitors scraped home with 26 thanks, in part, to a Jeeves double-act, Percy scoring five from number three and elder brother Alick, a spin bowler who usually played for Goole Locomotives, six from number nine.
In the final game of the season, against a Hull XI at Anlaby Road, Percy was unwell and managed just one run and no wickets. But he did briefly play in front of the biggest crowd of his life so far. During half-time in Hull City’s 2-0 victory over Barnsley in the Football League Division Two match on the neighbouring field, the crowd watching the cricket rose over 3,000.
Jeeves ended the season top of the Goole first XI bowling averages with figures that were remarkable even considering the poor batting wickets. He bowled 155.5 overs with 37 maidens and took 55 wickets for 323 runs, at an average of 5.87. His exceptional talent clearly belonged far above the gregarious but ramshackle confines of Goole.
During the winter, Jeeves took on the laborious duties of an office-boy at hardware store H. Williamson & Co. The prospect of a long-term future there was uninspiring, as was that of a life on the railways. The latter was likelier as railway work often passed through generations of families and Edwin was already planning to bring his boys into the fold. But was that what Percy wanted?
The days of 23 and 24 December brought thick fog upon Goole and a two-shillings fine for Mary Ann Shaw, of Pollington, for possessing two thrushes in contravention of the 1880 Wild Birds Act. Christmas Day dawned clear and bright. At the town’s workhouse, the occupants looked forward to the rare treat of tucking into roast beef followed by plum pudding in rum sauce. At 72 Manuel Street, Percy Jeeves pondered his future.
The 1908 cricket season opened in the Goole area on 18 April when Creosote Works beat Blacktoft by 41 runs and Gilberdyke squeezed home by three runs in a thriller against Hull Neptune-street.
The previous day, Jeeves had been in action at the Pleasure Grounds but with pig’s bladder rather than crimson rambler. He was in Swinefleet’s defence for a Good Friday morning friendly against Goole Town Reserves and it was quite a match. With the wind at their backs, Town were 5-0 up at half-time (“Jeeves was stretched”, reported the paper) then missed a penalty which would have made it 6-0 before Swinefleet fought back to finally lose 5-4.
Three days later, on Easter Monday, W.G. Grace, aged 59, began his last first-class appearance, for the Gentlemen of England against Surrey at The Oval, and it snowed.
Goole CC opened their season at Selby a fortnight later and Jeeves began as if he had no time to lose. He took six wickets, all bowled, in four overs and was “practically unplayable”. A week later, a strong Hull XI visited the Pleasure Grounds and was blown away as Jeeves bowled his fastest yet. A succession of batsmen were left with bruised hands, arms and bodies while Jeeves also hit the stumps five times among his seven wickets.
After a six-for and a seven-for came an eight-for. At Doncaster Grammar School, Jeeves conceded 12 runs without taking a wicket then finished with 8-20, also top-scoring with 20 for good measure. Against Selby Londesborough, he “bowled with his accustomed excellence” for 16.2-5-30-6. He top-scored with 21 against Hull Church Institute then took five wickets to skittle them for 42.
Jeeves’s all-round excellence, week after week, carried a team as struggling as it was disorganised. On 4 July, Goole failed to raise a side for the return match with Hull Church Institute. Again there were irritating gaps in the fixture list, one of which saw Jeeves turn out for the second XI against Thorne Brewery, a game in which his popularity was clear from the warmth shown by his opponents. On a lovely day at the Pleasure Grounds, Jeeves, the ace bowler in the area, was not brought on until very late and then every ball he bowled was greeted with ironic cheers by the brewery lads. He took the teasing with a smile and a wave.
Goole won their last match of the season, at home to Swanland Manor, by 79 runs. Percy Jeeves won it almost single-handedly, scoring 61 and taking 7-16. As he opened the football season in Swinefleet’s defence in a 1-1 draw with Snaith, in cricket terms, he had clearly outgrown the Sleepy Hollow.
Jeeves would be 20 years old the following March. Ahead of him lay only a life of drudgery on the railway docks alleviated by some cricket at weekends. Edwin now had all his adult sons fixed up on the railways: Thomas as a station clerk, Alick an engine stoker and Percy a dock labourer. But Percy had a special talent.
Goole firsts opened their 1909 season on 1 May with an away match at Doncaster Plant Works. They were thrashed and, much to the disgust of Spectator, omitted to send details to the newspaper. “Goole, we are told, could only compile 20,” he reported, “while the Doncaster men slogged the Goole bowling about for something like 184 runs for the loss of four wickets – and this despite the fact the visitors had the assistance of Percy Jeeves.”
It was the last time they were to have such assistance. Jeeves had been engaged as a professional cricketer.