1. The son of Australian politician James Jack Fingleton, he was known for his dour defensive approach as a batsman, scoring five Test match centuries, representing Australia in 18 Tests between 1932 and 1938.
106 Facts About Jack Fingleton
1. 2.
Jack Fingleton then made his debut in the Fifth and final Test of the season against South Africa, making 40 in an innings victory.
3.
At his height, Jack Fingleton was scoring centuries in three consecutive innings as Australia won each of the last three Tests by an innings.
4.
Jack Fingleton enlisted in the military during World War II and was eventually sent to work on media matters for Prime Minister John Curtin and one of his predecessors, Billy Hughes.
5.
Jack Fingleton was a prolific author, regarded as one of the finest and most stylish cricket writers of his time, producing many books.
6.
Jack Fingleton was known for his forthright opinions and willingness to criticise, especially regarding his colleague Don Bradman, and his cricket reports were published by newspapers in several countries.
7.
Jack Fingleton was often described as "courageous", in particular for his defiant batting against Bodyline.
8.
Jack Fingleton often made self-deprecating comments about his batting, telling English cricket writer Alan Gibson that he "missed nothing" by not seeing him bat.
9.
Jack Fingleton was an athletic and gifted fieldsman, who built his reputation in the covers.
10.
In 1913, at the age of five, Jack Fingleton's father was elected into state parliament as a representative of the centre left, labour-union oriented Australian Labor Party, and the family moved into a larger house.
11.
Jack Fingleton was educated at the Roman Catholic St Francis's School, in the inner city suburb of Paddington before moving to Waverley College.
12.
In 1917, the family fell upon hard times when the elder Jack Fingleton lost his seat and resumed his job as a tram driver, but in 1918 contracted tuberculosis.
13.
The father succumbed in 1920 when Jack Fingleton was twelve, and the funeral director was Australian Test wicket-keeper Sammy Carter.
14.
However, the business failed and the family home was at risk, so Jack Fingleton was forced to quit school at the age of 12.
15.
Jack Fingleton did a variety of jobs such as selling food at cinemas, washing bottles and sweeping floors.
16.
At the age of fifteen, Jack Fingleton took the first steps in his journalism career, when his cousin helped him to become a copy boy with the now defunct Sydney Daily Guardian.
17.
Jack Fingleton started as a sports reporter, and had a narrow escape when he was sacked by Robert Clyde Packer for breaking a pot, but then reinstated.
18.
Jack Fingleton then risked being fired by removing cricket articles written by the famed Neville Cardus from the newspaper's archive against policy for his personal use.
19.
Jack Fingleton was unable to distinguish himself on the field while at school, but after joining Waverley, he made quick progress.
20.
Jack Fingleton trained early in the morning, before heading to the office and working in the afternoon so that the articles would be printed in the evening.
21.
Jack Fingleton was unable to afford the club membership so a patron sponsored him.
22.
Australian Test captain Herbie Collins missed a match due to his work as a bookmaker, and Jack Fingleton stood in at late notice.
23.
Under the leadership of Carter, Jack Fingleton batted last and made 11 not out.
24.
Jack Fingleton was coaxed by a cricketer-journalist to move to his publication, the Telegraph Pictorial, where he worked for several years before the outbreak of the Second World War.
25.
Jack Fingleton was demoted from the main staff to a freelance correspondent covering events in the inner-city suburbs of Redfern and Newtown.
26.
In such crime-ridden and turbulent working-class area, Jack Fingleton was productive in break stories and was restored to the regular staff.
27.
On debut against Victoria, Jack Fingleton was allowed to bat no higher than No 8 by captain Tommy Andrews, despite being a specialist batsman.
28.
The match was drawn, and Jack Fingleton then made a duck against Tasmania in an innings victory.
29.
Jack Fingleton scored 56 as a full strength team with Test players fell for 143.
30.
The visitors were set 392 for victory and played for a draw, with Jack Fingleton adding 71 to prevent a collapse as the match was saved.
31.
Jack Fingleton failed to pass single figures in his next four innings, and was dropped twice, before adding 32 not out and 26 as New South Wales lost to the touring West Indies.
32.
Jack Fingleton did not play a full season and ended with 210 runs at 35.00 in five matches, including the two half-centuries.
33.
Undeterred, Stan McCabe came in and counterattacked; Jack Fingleton assisted him with a stubborn 93 and featured in a 195-run fourth wicket partnership.
34.
Jack Fingleton made his debut in the Fifth and final Test in similar circumstances to his break at the start of the season; Bill Ponsford fell ill and Bradman twisted an ankle.
35.
Opening with captain Bill Woodfull in the absence of Ponsford, Jack Fingleton saw his skipper removed from the first ball of the innings.
36.
Jack Fingleton was allowed to ease into his first innings when the first ball he faced, from Neville Quinn, was a deliberate full toss to give him an opportunity to score his initial runs easily.
37.
Jack Fingleton was second top-scorer with 40 as Australia made 153 recorded an innings victory.
38.
Jack Fingleton ended the season with 386 runs at 42.88 with one century and a fifty in six matches.
39.
In one of the tour matches before the Tests, Jack Fingleton scored a defiant 119*, carrying his bat for New South Wales against the bumper barrage of Harold Larwood and Gubby Allen, ensuring his selection for the First Test.
40.
Jack Fingleton then made a defiant four-hour innings to top-score with 83 in the first innings of Australia's only win of the series in the Second Test in Melbourne, although he did run out his batting partner Leo O'Brien in the process.
41.
Jack Fingleton appeared as well equipped as any Australian to combat England's strategy.
42.
However, the Third Test at the Adelaide Oval was disastrous for Jack Fingleton, who scored a pair as Australia were hammered by 338 runs.
43.
Jack Fingleton was blamed for leaking the details of the dressing room exchange between captain Bill Woodfull and English manager Plum Warner, which almost caused the abandonment of the Test series.
44.
Jack Fingleton was dropped for the remaining two Tests of the series.
45.
New South Wales played England after the Third Test and Jack Fingleton had a chance to show his credentials against Bodyline but made only 19 and 7 in a four-wicket defeat, and was unable to force his way back into the Test team.
46.
Jack Fingleton scored four half-centuries for the remainder of the first-class season and ended with 648 runs at 38.11 as New South Wales won the Sheffield Shield.
47.
Jack Fingleton scored 105 in the Test trial for Richardson's XI and then struck 145 against arch-rivals Victoria in the last match of the season; New South Wales were unable to force a victory and thus ceded the Sheffield Shield to their southern neighbours.
48.
Jack Fingleton had scored 76 in the return match earlier in the season and added 33 and 78 against the Rest of Australia.
49.
Jack Fingleton suspected that Woodfull wanted him out of the team because he held the journalist responsible for the leaked exchange with Warner.
50.
Jack Fingleton had moved out of his crease to pat out the pitch before the ball had gone dead and Victorian wicket-keeper Ben Barnett broke the stumps.
51.
Jack Fingleton refused Woodfull's offer and did not return until Woodfull successfully asked Borwick to reverse his decision.
52.
The media reported that Jack Fingleton had quarrelled with Woodfull and several teammates told him that his apparent rebuff of the national captain would prejudice his chances of selection, and the NSWCA made an inquiry into the matter; Jack Fingleton failed to respond.
53.
Jack Fingleton questioned what he perceived to be Woodfull's coldness towards him since the Bodyline series and decried unnamed "fellow pressmen, naturally jealous".
54.
Jack Fingleton was selected for a second string Australian team to tour New Zealand for two months at the end of the season while the Test team departed for England.
55.
Jack Fingleton found state cricket more attractive now that Bradman had decided to move to South Australia to take up stockbroking.
56.
Jack Fingleton scored 880 runs at 58.66 with four centuries and four fifties, almost 200 runs more than the second most prolific batsman, Brown.
57.
Jack Fingleton reached 49 at least once in the remaining five matches, including a 108 against Queensland.
58.
Jack Fingleton ended the season with consecutive centuries, 124 and 100, against Western Australia, and took the first of two first-class wickets in his career in the first of the two matches.
59.
For Jack Fingleton, it was the happiest tour he had been on, in large part due to Bradman's absence.
60.
Jack Fingleton was reluctant to comply, and was reprieved when the editor-in-chief overruled Baume.
61.
Jack Fingleton scored 66 for the Australians in an innings victory over Western Australia before sailing for South Africa.
62.
Jack Fingleton finished the series with centuries in each of the last three Tests, all in consecutive innings; 112 at Cape Town, 108 at Johannesburg and 118 in Durban.
63.
Jack Fingleton ended the Test series with 478 runs at 79.66.
64.
Jack Fingleton ended the tour with a total of 1192 runs at 74.50, including six centuries.
65.
Gubby Allen's Englishmen toured Australia, and after failing to pass 10 in his first three innings for the season, Jack Fingleton scored 39,42 and 56 in matches for New South Wales and an Australian XI against the tourists.
66.
Jack Fingleton top-scored as Australia replied to England's 358 with 234.
67.
Jack Fingleton's run ended in the second innings, falling for a golden duck as Australia were skittled for 58 on a sticky wicket and crushed by 322 runs.
68.
Jack Fingleton did not pass 20 in his last three innings of the series, as Australia won the remaining two matches to win the series.
69.
Jack Fingleton ended with 398 runs at 44.22 in the Tests, and 631 runs at 33.21 overall.
70.
Jack Fingleton saved his best for arch-rivals Victoria, scoring 59 and 160 to salvage a draw after New South Wales had conceded a first innings lead of 231.
71.
Jack Fingleton finished his season with 66,1,47 and 109 in two warm-up matches for the Australian team against Western Australia before they headed to England for the 1938 Ashes series.
72.
In 1938, Jack Fingleton made what turned out to be his international farewell as Australia toured England, a series in which he found runs difficult to come by.
73.
Jack Fingleton later attributed this to his inability to play the pull shot.
74.
Jack Fingleton passed 30 in each of his first seven innings on English soil, and converted three of these starts into centuries, scoring 124 against Oxford University, 111 against Cambridge University and 123 not out against Hampshire in the first month of cricket.
75.
Jack Fingleton's form tapered just at the wrong time, falling three times for single figures in the last two matches before the Tests.
76.
Jack Fingleton carried this into the First Test at Trent Bridge, where he made only 9 and 40 in a high-scoring draw in which every innings passed 400.
77.
Jack Fingleton said that he was not perturbed by the crowd but obeyed; umpire Frank Chester and England captain Wally Hammond had no issues with this.
78.
At one point, Jack Fingleton theatrically decided to take off his gloves, put down his bat and sit down on the pitch and refusing to resume before the gallery quietened, but this only caused a huge uproar.
79.
Jack Fingleton rediscovered his form between the Tests, scoring 121 against the Gentlemen of England and 96 against Lancashire.
80.
Again however, Jack Fingleton was unable to maintain the momentum in the Tests, making 31 and 4 against England in the Second Test at Lord's, which ended in another draw.
81.
Jack Fingleton then aggregated only 36 in four innings in next three county fixtures, and after the Third Test at Old Trafford never started due to persistent rain, he was concussed in the match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
82.
Jack Fingleton made 30 and 9 in a low-scoring Fourth Test at Headingley, which Australia won by five wickets to retain the Ashes.
83.
Jack Fingleton remained unproductive in the lead-up to the final Test, scoring 51 in three first-class innings.
84.
Jack Fingleton made 123 runs in six innings at an average of 20.50.
85.
Jack Fingleton passed single figures only once in six innings and ended with a duck and three as New South Wales lost to arch-rivals Victoria by 82 runs.
86.
Jack Fingleton was sent to Warwick Farm, then on the western outskirts of Sydney, for training.
87.
Jack Fingleton was then transferred to the Press Relations unit.
88.
Jack Fingleton spent three months working for the temperamental Hughes and was not successful in curbing his aggressive oratory.
89.
Jack Fingleton then worked in censorship, deciding which portions of Curtin's press briefings were reportable; he tried to take a liberal line on press freedom.
90.
Jack Fingleton worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Australia while serving in the censorship department.
91.
Jack Fingleton's cricket writing, regarded as one of the most stylish by an Australian, often left a sour taste with observers because of the persistent anti-Bradman jibes.
92.
Jack Fingleton received advice and encouragement from the eminent British cricket writer Neville Cardus, and suffered a setback when, after finishing half the book, he sent his manuscript to be reviewed.
93.
Jack Fingleton then published with Cassell, and the book was widely acclaimed and is still regarded as the best first-hand account of the Bodyline controversy and of the classic cricket books at large.
94.
Jack Fingleton expressed his views forthrightly and interspersed the account with analyses and profiles of those involved in the Bodyline series, including Bradman, Jardine, Larwood, Warner and McCabe.
95.
Jack Fingleton criticised Bradman's unorthodox approach in backing away from the bowling and questioned his aloof attitude towards his teammates.
96.
Jack Fingleton mainly freelanced for overseas newspapers as he regarded Australian editors as being difficult to work with, and because the pay was lower.
97.
Jack Fingleton openly criticised the decision to give Bradman not out in his writing.
98.
At the dedication ceremony, Governor-General of Australia Sir Ninian Stephen said that Jack Fingleton was not merely a Test cricketer who became a parliamentary journalist in the national capital, but "an institution" in Canberra.
99.
Jack Fingleton was the subject of three appearances in 1979 and 1980 on Parkinson's TV interview show.
100.
Jack Fingleton's judgements were characterised by careful first-hand evidence and was known for sensing the emergence of a possible story.
101.
Jack Fingleton met his wife Philippa "Pip" Street in 1938 during the sea voyage from Australia to England for the Test series.
102.
Jack Fingleton's father later became the Chief Justice of New South Wales, while her mother was a prominent left-wing women's rights activist.
103.
Jack Fingleton hoped that the young couple would drift apart, but Fingleton gave the family tickets to the Fifth Test in London, only to injure himself during the match and not be able to bat.
104.
Jack Fingleton wanted Philippa to adopt Catholicism, something that concerned her mother, as she had clashed with Catholic leaders in her advocacy of birth control.
105.
The wedding went ahead in January 1942 after Philippa agreed to convert and Jack Fingleton got along easily with his mother-in-law's left-wing orientation.
106.
Jack Fingleton was not invited, speculated to be due to his journalistic background, but Bradman later alleged that he was the ringleader.