Jack Mercer

Who was Jack Mercer?

John "Jack" Mercer was the main bowler for Glamorgan in their early years in the County Championship. He bowled medium pace and could swing the ball both ways, whilst when wickets were affected by rain he was able to get on a good deal of off-break. He suffered during his career from Glamorgan's lack of agile, athletic fieldsmen, which meant he was often plagued by dropped catches - otherwise his figures would have been much better. On occasions, he was a dangerous tail-end batsman, who once hit Wilfred Rhodes for 36 runs from 3 overs and hit Dick Howorth for 31 runs off an eight-ball over in his last season with Glamorgan. John Arlott said of him, "he bowled more overs, conceded more runs, took more wickets, scored the fastest 50, made more ducks and was not out more often than anyone else in the county's history".