Ernie Jones No-Balled for Throwing — First in Test Cricket, 1898

Throwing had been a recurring concern in English cricket through the 1880s and 1890s, but no umpire had publicly called a top-class bowler. Jim Phillips, born in Pleasant Creek, Victoria, had bowled for Victoria and Middlesex in his playing career and had become a full-time umpire in 1898. He had a reputation for moral steel; his closest friend in the umpiring fraternity was the equally uncompromising Bill Tarrant.

Australia won the toss; Australia 520 (Hill 188). England 315; followed on; Phillips and the second umpire took the field for the second innings.

Jones — 'Jonah,' a former miner from Auburn — was the fastest bowler in Australia in 1897-98 and had been the difference in the First Test at Sydney, taking 6/82. His action featured a noticeable straightening of the elbow at delivery; on the 1896 tour to England he had been called for throwing in tour matches by Yorkshire umpires.

Jim Phillips, the Australian-born umpire who would later end Arthur Mold's career, had called Jones once for South Australia v MCC in November 1897, a no-ball that the Adelaide press treated as a personal opinion. The Melbourne call on 1 January 1898 — the second day of the Second Test — was the first time any bowler had been no-balled for a suspect action in a Test match.

The call went almost unmentioned at the time in the Australian press; both the Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald ran the story below the fold. Jones bowled on without incident, took 1/91 across the Test, and Australia won by an innings and 55. Jones played the rest of the series and the 1899 tour to England without further calls. But the 'chucking question' was now public: Phillips would call Mold in 1900 and 1901 (16 no-balls in one match), ending the Lancashire fast bowler's career.

The MCC moved cautiously. A captains' meeting in December 1900 produced a 'list' of suspect actions; the law itself was tightened in 1901. The episode is the foundation of every subsequent throwing controversy in Test cricket — through Charlie Griffith, Geoff Griffin, Ian Meckiff, and Muttiah Muralitharan.

“Mr Phillips called the bowler in unmistakable tones; Jones smiled and bowled on.”

Jones played 19 Tests in total, including the 1899 tour. He retired in 1902 and became a publican in Adelaide. The 'throwing question' he opened ended Mold's career and produced the 1901 law revision that defined the bowling action through to 1958. Phillips became the most respected umpire of the era; Wisden made him a Cricketer of the Year in 1900.