Jack Ikin

John Thomas Ikin, known as Jack Ikin (7 March 1918 – 15 September 1984)^[1] was an English cricketer, who played in eighteen Tests from 1946 to 1955. A "calm, popular left-hander who also bowled leg spin", Ikin played most of his cricket for Lancashire^[1]

Ikin was a solid left-handed batsman whose comparatively mediocre Test record underplayed his contribution to the team as a sturdy foil to such players as Edrich, Hutton and Compton.^[1]

Life and career

He played minor county cricket for Staffordshire from the age of sixteen, and appeared for Lancashire in four games in 1939, with George Headley falling as the first of his 339 first-class wickets.^[2] After losing perhaps his best years to World War II, during which he fought at Tobruk, he resumed his career for Lancashire in 1946 and became a mainstay of the team, recording 1,000 runs in a season eleven times. He toured Australia in the 1946-47 Ashes series, compiling an obdurate 60 at Sydney, and featuring in a brave stand of 118 with Norman Yardley in Melbourne. He was involved in a pivotal incident in the first Test at Brisbane where he 'caught' Don Bradman at second slip for 28 from the bowling of Bill Voce, only for the umpire to rule the batsman not out. Bradman, who had been flirting with thoughts of retirement, went on to make 187. His tour of the West Indies, under Gubby Allen was less successful, but he scored 625 runs at an average of 89.28 on a Commonwealth tour of India in 1950/51, a year after injury had forced him to withdraw from the MCC tour.

In his benefit match against the 1948 Australians, Ikin had reached 90 when Bradman instructed Keith Miller to bowl. Miller refused, noting that Ikin had been a Rat of Tobruk, but his fast bowling partner Lindwall denied Ikin his century, bowling him for 99. Ikin took a hat-trick against Somerset in 1949, and recorded his highest score of 192 against Oxford University in 1951. Gradually injury and fragile health took its toll, and Ikin retired at the end of the 1957 season, with 17,968 first-class runs to his name. He resumed his minor county career, with success for Staffordshire, playing on until 1968 and served as assistant manager on the 1965/6 MCC tour of Australia.

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