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Full name | John Thomas Ikin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Bignall End, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England |
7 March 1918|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 15 September 1984 Bignall End, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England |
(aged 66)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Left-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Legbreak googly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relations | Michael Ikin (son) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Thomas Ikin, known as Jack Ikin (7 March 1918 – 15 September 1984) 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
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.
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. 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.