Cricket 1904

CRICKET, A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. JULY 7, 1904. @^|j i 'm r *© 1 \ jw8(Si “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. Ko. 666. VOL. xxiii . THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1904. * bice aa. A FAMOUS YORKSHIREMAN. There never was a more enthusiastic cricketer than Tom Emmett, whose sudden death was announced on Thursday evening last week, to the great sorrow of all who knew him. Nor was there ever another cricketer who was quite like him, for he was a class by him­ self. He was perhaps not handsome in appearance, and the art of the photographer has not given modern cric­ keters a chance of seeing what he was really like, but he was straightforward, good natured, and a general favourite with all kinds of cricketers. He was on the most friendly terms with the great amateurs of his day, to whom he spoke with a free­ dom and absence of reserve which never failed to interest and please them, even when his opinions were given in the most plain spoken terms. He was liked by them all, and every professional re­ garded him as a friend. It is a question whether he was more interesting to watch when bowling or when batting. No matter how lethargic might be an opposing eleven, every man woke up when Tom Emmett came to the wickets, for apart from all other con­ siderations, it was certain that his arrival would be followed by some very en­ tertaining cricket. During the first few overs he seemed in a frantic hurry to run himself or his partneri out, and if he was told to go back when he bad called for an absolutely impossible run his feelings seemed too deep for words. In his eagerness to increase the total he backed up so far that men whose nerves were usually steady were often b o excited that they threw wildly at the wicket, to the great joy of the batsman, Who, despite his apparent rashness, knew Quite well how far he could go without risk. There were times when he completely de­ moralised the field, if the captain of the other side was not a man who could keep his head. Emmett was by no means a bad batsman, although some of his strokes were so unorthodox that the purists were amazed at his indifference to appearances, for in those days it was not in accordance with the canons of the art of cricket to depart from ordinary methods. Tom would not have had very much to learn from modern batsmen in the way of making “ cow shots ” and the many other mystical strokes which are now talked about ; he might even have had the honour of inventing a stroke which should add a new word to a dictionary of cricket terms. But it was perhaps as a bowler that Emmett was chiefly a joy for ever. No one ever knew why he should suddenly place all his field on the off-side, and then bowl half-a-dozen balls to leg—not wides, as is often supposed, but balls which theoretically ought each to have been hit for four. There was probably a certain amount of method in this pro­ cedure, for while a batsman could for some extraordinary reason seldom touch one of these balls, he was generally unsettled by them and un­ prepared to deal with the remarkably unpleasant over which almost invariably followed. He had a low action, and when he was running up to the wicket his arm did so many eccentric things that it was not easy for a batsman to see when the ball left his hand. In days when the “ off theory ” was unheard of Emmett practised it with much suc­ cess, for it seldom happened that a batsman could resist the opportunity of making what seemed a cortain hit for four, and the ball went away so quickly that catches in the slips often resulted. No batsman, not even Dr. Grace, felt quite happy, how­ ever well set he might be, when Emmett took another turn with the ball, for the odds were very considerable that he would get something quite out of the common and altogether unexpected. Emmett always used to say that he and the other bowlers of his day were born before their time, inasmuch as they were opposed to Dr. Grace at his best; and no cricketers of the present day can possibly realise what this means. Whether Emmett would have been successful on modern wickets if his time had been the present instead of the past may be questionable, but the way in which Alfrtd Shaw, when, after years of retirement, he reappeared in first-class cricket, made the best bats­ men feel about for the ball, and look