Jack Simmons life story Part Three

It was the day that Tasmania won the Gillette Cup in front of a packed house in Hobart and shocked Australian cricket.

It's also the day of his career that Jack Simmons holds closest to his heart.

For the Lancashire all-rounder it had been a seven-year journey in which Jack had turned Tasmania from a group of amateurs into a serious cricketing outfit.

Putting the win into context, the Tasmanian Tigers didn't win another trophy until they lifted the Pura Cup last season.

And even though decades have passed, the 66-year-old former Tasmania captain can still recall the day as if it were yesterday.

He said: "I cried. I never cried at winning a final at Lord's. I was always over the moon about it. But this was the greatest thrill of my entire career. It was greater than any of the Lord's finals or the trophies I'd won with Lancashire.

"Possibly because it was so unexpected. We had nine amateurs and two professionals. The team we beat, Western Australia, had about seven Test players in their side so to do that in front of your own crowd was unbelievable. But what it did for cricket in Tasmania was tremendous.

"And when I held that trophy up to the crowd and they were all chanting Simmo, Simmo, Simmo' it was a moment I will never forget.

"It was very personal to me. I'd built the foundations of youth cricket first and then you impressed on the senior players, of which there were some very talented cricketers, because they had no confidence. They didn't think they could play against Doug Walters, Graham Yallop, Bruce Yardley, Allan Border etc whoever it might have been."

The Simmonses arrived for the first time in 1972/73 and were met by the Tasmanian media corp who were keen to find out what the new coach had in store.

Jack followed in the footsteps of Lancashire fast bowler Peter Lever who had left under a bit of a cloud as he thought the set-up in Tasmania was too amatuerish.

And over the next seven years, he put into place the coaching structure produced the likes of David Boon and the current captain Ricky Ponting.

He said: "The first time I went over, me and the wife were met off the plane by an entourage of people came running down to us with a television camera. Jacqueline and I looked behind us to see who else was getting off but there was just us!

"I was ushered into the VIP section at the airport and the TV cameras were set up there and they asked if I minded doing an interview and they asked me what I was going to do.

They told me whatever I wanted to do was ok and I was really put on the spot in front of the media.

"So I told them I would be going into Primary schools so we could catch the kids young and create their interest in the game and then we would see how we would go about helping the more senior cricketers.

"The system I put in place helped the likes of Ricky Ponting get started. The last year I was there, he would have entered into that system and it's still there.

"With the success that Lancashire were having at that time helped because the people in Tasmania knew all about it.

"I started with a clean sheet of paper from the Peter Lever era. They put a lot of emphasis on the new coach being an English county cricketer, not necessarily a Test player, and they told me I could go about things as I saw fit."

And he did. As part of the structure he put in place, he attached clubs to primary schools so the young players would have a natural progression through junior cricket into senior clubs.

With Jack's base in Launceston, in the north, the team would be selected over a long weekend with a round robin group of matches. But selection wasn't an easy task.

Jack added: "Politics in Tasmania at that time was like the West Indies. It was horrendous. You even had a selector from the south coming up to the games in the north to pick the Tasmanian team and they would say because the capital was in the south, they had to have six players in the side no matter who they are."

But despite the obstacles being put up in front of him, activities were starting pick up.

In the early 1970s, Tasmania were restricted to a couple of first class games and a match against the touring Test side.

But as time went on and Tasmania improved they were allowed into the Gillette Cup and then, later, the Sheffield Shield.

But it took Jack to introduce a change in culture to bring about a change in results.

He said: "The first time I captained the side to play against the touring Pakistanis, I went down to Hobart and booked into the hotel. Now, it wasn't a four-star job it was a pub with a few rooms. I was going to have a couple of drinks, a bite to eat and then get some sleep but one of the side was throwing a party at his house.

"I didn't turn around as say that they shouldn't be doing that but I went along to see what type of a party it was. It could have been a bonding party for the players to have a few drinks. I've never been against having a few drinks and enjoying yourself. I think part and parcel of cricket is that.

"So I went and left about midnight and went back to the hotel. I could see that one or two had continued and after the game we played I asked the question: What makes you think we should have had that party?' If we'd have had it at the end of the game then I'd been along with them. I'm not a killjoy. I don't mind parties and I've done things wrong in the past but one of them said: Well, we were going to get beaten anyway." That shift in attitude took a lot of time to overcome.' With Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield competition on an experimental basis and Yorkshireman John Hampshire now on board as vice-captain, Tasmania reached the Gillette Cup final in 1978.

Jack said: "We got to the Gillette Cup final in 77/78 against Western Australia at the WACA. WA were the best side in Australia by far at the time.

"Don't forget, just prior to that, Kerry Packer began his World Series Cricket so when we went into Sheffield Shield, there were no Packer men, and that's when they brought back Bobby Simpson to captain because this had become a big shock to world cricket. They had no Dennis Lillee etc.

"You only needed to win a couple of games to get to the final. We beat Queensland and then South Australia in Hobart and got to the final at Perth and that's when it was really fast and bouncy and it was a real disadvantage to us because they knew how to play on it and we didn't.

"We put a good show but we got beat. We weren't disgraced and did reasonably well."

But the year after, Tasmania started to make a big noise.

He added: "We started off in Sheffield Shield with a couple of draws and I got my first hundred, against South Australia, and then we went to play Queensland at Brisbane and I got a career best, 7-59, then we played Queensland in the semi-final of the Gillette Cup and Boon hit the winning runs.

"They wanted to play the final at the MCG against WA and I said that was ridiculous. How many people are going to come from WA and Tasmania to Melbourne?

"So I had a do with Richie Benaud and Frank Tyson, who were commentators, and then I went to see Gillette. I told them they would fill the ground if they had the final in Hobart.

"It was all about television and this is why I went to see Richie about the technicalities of holding the final in Tasmania.

"So we eventually got the go ahead and you've never seen anything like it in all your life. I arrived probably two and a half hours before the game and the ground was three-quarters full."

On that fateful day in 79, the Tasmanian skipper went to see the Doyen of cricket commentators Benaud for the lowdown on the Western Australia batsman.

And Benaud gave him some very useful advice.

Jack said: "We had a plan worked out for every batsman and because both John and I had played a lot of one-day cricket, we had a good knowledge of tactics.

"I would go and see Richie Benaud and Frank Tyson and they would give me advice on players as much as I wanted.

"Richie went through all of the players except one - Graeme Wood. I said to Richie: What about Woody.'" And he said: Don't worry about him Jack, he'll run himself out. He runs himself out time and time again.' And he bloody did as well."

The build-up to the game was nothing short of incredible. The people of the island flocked to the TCA ground in Hobart for the biggest day in the club's history.

He added: "There were tents and some camper vans outside the ground where people can come down from the north and north west ready for the game."

But victory looked a long way away with Tasmania 84-6. But cometh the hour, cometh the man.

The Lancashire star strode to the wicket with his side's needing a captain's knock - and that's exactly what he produced.

Jack hit 55 from 78 balls in a partnership of 96 with Trevor Docking to get the home side up to a respectable 180-6.

"But with the way they started, they took 23 off the first four overs, I knew I had to do something so I brought myself on to try and peg it back a little bit," he said.

"But in my first over, John Inverarity tried to chip me over mid-on and was caught by Docking. Kim Hughes (former Aussie skipper), who I had got out twice when we played the Australians at Old Trafford, was next in and I put him under pressure and put a bat/pad in on the offside. And it worked. He tried to come down the wicket to me and whack me over the top, it went straight up in the air and I caught it. Then Dock produced a superb piece of fielding to run Woody out - just as Riches had predicted - so we started to believe that there was something in it for us.

"Tony Mann was next in, the left-hander, and he used to like to play his shots. He tried to take me off a length and I bowled him with the arm ball."

Craig Serjeant started to resurrect the WA innings so Jack brought himself back into the attack and removed him with a bizarre dismissal.

He adeed: "In my first over back, Serjeant tried to sweep me, off middle stump, to deep square leg straight to Mark Scholes.

"It hit him in the chest, knocked him over onto his back, and the ball landed on his chest and he caught it!

"That left them at 127-8 but they still had a couple of handy batsmen. But I felt then that we would win the game."

Gary Cowmeadow came back into the attack and secured a famous win by taking the last two wickets to send the skipper and the Tasmanian public into ecstacy.

"Nobody left the ground, "said Jack. "They all came down to the pavilion where I was given this huge trophy and the man of the match award. Tasmania still has the trophy because that was the last year of the Gillette Cup.

"It was the greatest thrill of my career."

And the Tasmanians certainly appreciated his efforts for in 2002, along with 13 other Tasmanian greats, were inducted in the inaugural Tasmanian Field of Fame.

Also, each year the state present Jack Simmons Medal for the Ford Ranger Cup Player of the Year.

His legacy will truly live on.

Simmons on David Boon: He was a great kid. He went to a school called Charles Street and this little 10-year-old kid just struck a chord with me.

I went to see the headmaster and told him that they needed to play a few games and I sorted one out with another school I coached.

So I started watching games and selecting the best to give them extra coaching.

I asked David if he wanted to play and he said: "I don't know about that, Mr Simmons. I play football (Aussie Rules) and go swimming." So I got his number and called his dad and told him that he had a very talented son and that I thought he had something special.

And he said that he would take him wherever he wanted me to.

His dad and mum were very passionate sports people. His mum was a top Tasmanian hockey player and his dad was a good Aussie Rules footballer so sport ran in their blood.

At 12, I used to allocate all the schools to the clubs and we came out with a rule that anyone who was any good, like Boonie, he had to be with that club and it was where his primary school was so the affiliation with a club could be built.

You could tell David had the ability and it was great to see him get into the Tasmanian side and then represent his country. I dare say I shared a few beers with Mr Boon over the years but I wasn't too impressed when he drank 52 cans of beer of the flight from Austalia to London ahead of the 1989 Ashes Series.

I said to him Drinking all that at 30,00ft - you could have died!' He said he was ok.

But he did well out of it. The Victoria Bitter firm (VB) made some Boonie' dolls. You put the doll next to the television and when the cricket comes on, the doll says Get me a VB, Boonie!"

It also makes me smile that Boonie was my last first class wicket. In 1990 I took a pre-season tour down to Austalia and we played Tassie in a friendly and I got David out. It meant that I had taken wickets for Lancashire in five different decades.