Jack Meyer (educator and Cricketer) - Personality

Personality

Meyer was unpredictable in most of what he did. Tales of his eccentric behaviour are legion and many of them appear to have more than a smattering of truth; but despite all of this, he was also a genuinely far-sighted educationalist, an unorthodox but successful entrepreneur, and a talented if unharnessed sportsman. He inspired fierce both loyalty, but also, often at the same time, a large measure of exasperation.

Meyer was a restless character, and tales of eccentric behaviour are not confined to the cricket pitch; some examples are as follows:

• Apparently in a 1947 county game, the Somerset cricketer Arthur Wellard, even older than Meyer, was bowling rather well, when Northamptonshire batsman Dennis Brookes played a false stroke through the slips which Meyer, too crippled by lumbago to bend down, failed to catch. Meyer reached into his back pocket: "Sorry Arthur, here's a quid."
• He once pulled the communication cord on the Manchester train so that his players could get some food.
• In a match interrupted by rain, Somerset took the field with only 10 men until Meyer appeared under a large red umbrella.
• Meyer allegedly needed little sleep, which he would take in the headmaster's study. He carried a horse racing form book along with other more academic works and on occasion went to London where he wagered large sums of money in gambling casinos, often losing the lot.