John Abbotts (or Abbott) Smart (12 April 1891 – 3 October 1979) was an English first-class

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and Test match

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

. Smart was born in Forest Hill near

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, into a cricketing family. His father was a professional cricketer for

; and his brother

Cyril Smart Cyril Cecil Smart (23 July 1898 – 21 May 1975) was an English cricketer who played for Glamorgan and Warwickshire County Cricket Clubs between 1920 and 1946, featuring in 236 first-class cricket matches as a right-handed batsman and occasiona ...

played first-class cricket for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

and

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

, who set a world record in 1935 by hitting 32 runs off one over. Two other brothers played as professionals at clubs in Wales. Smart worked as a miner before becoming a professional county cricketer. He played

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for

from 1910 to 1912, and made his first-class cricket debut for

in 1919, playing alongside his brother Cyril from 1920 to 1922. He became a regular fixture in the Warwickshire side from 1920, playing 238 games in all. He began as an attacking batsman and occasional

off break Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

bowler, but became the team's

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

after the retirement of Tiger Smith in 1930, catching 317 victims while standing behind the stumps and

stumping Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

105 (in addition to 77 catches as an outfielder). He made 79 dismissals in 1932, a then county record which was bettered by Geoff Humpage in 1985. He scored a total of 3,425 runs in 340 innings, at the relatively low

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 11.53, including 9 half-centuries (four in 1923), and a high score of 68 not out against Worcestershire in 1922. He took 22 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 57.36, with best bowling of 3/31 against Northamptonshire in 1922. He played his last first-class cricket in 1936, and turned to umpiring the following year. He umpired 4 Test matches, all played in England, two involving

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1946 and two

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1947. He made his debut as a Test umpire in the 1st Test against India at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in June 1946, standing with Herbert Baldwin. His second Test as umpire was the 3rd Test that August, at

the Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

, which was spoiled by rain. He also umpired the high-scoring but drawn 1st and 5th Tests against South Africa in 1947, at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

and the Oval. He finally retired in 1948. He died in

Bulkington Bulkington is a large village and former civil parish near Bedworth, in the Nuneaton and Bedworth district of Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : In the 2011 census the ward had a population of 6,146 d ...

, near

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

, in Warwickshire.

References

External links

* *
Obituary
from ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1980 {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Jack 1891 births 1979 deaths Warwickshire cricketers English Test cricket umpires English cricketers Wiltshire cricketers Wicket-keepers 20th-century English sportsmen