Famous Cricketers No 60 - Ernest Tyldesley

Tour 14 21 2 1130 161 59.47 4 4 1 Career 409 612 58 23220 244 41.91 56 115 177 Bowling O M R W BB Avge Test matches 0.2 0 2 0 - - Career 55 6 289 6 3-33 48.17 1928 This was truly Ernest Tyldesley’s “annus mirabilis”. For the only time in his career he scored over 3,000 runs, ironically finishing just 17 short of his brother John’s county record of 3,041; J.T., however, took an extra 12 innings in 1901. Ernest’s ten centuries equalled his own best performance and he finished with an average just short of 80. Only Patsy Hendren and Phil Mead outscored him and he secured third place in the national averages to Douglas Jardine (who only played 17 innings) and, almost inevitably, Jack Hobbs. In the season when Lancashire won their third consecutive County Championship, he failed by a mere two runs to equal his previous highest score. With Hallows and Watson also in prime form this was Lancashire’s year of years. Tyldesley set the tone from the start. Both he and Harry Makepeace scored 84 in a faultless stand of 167 for the third wicket in The Parks and then he hit a brilliant 140 in the opening county match, joining Watson in a stand of 179 for the second wicket after a 200 opening partnership. His 70 against Glamorgan which followed was also preceded by a double century opening stand. His 16 and 25 against Warwickshire stood out as comparative failures, though the return match at Nelson featured a sparkling knock of 60 not out from 48 balls as Lancashire raced to a declaration total. The month ended with a century against Sussex; this was scored in the course of a second wicket stand of 198 with Charlie Hallows, the latter reaching his personal milestone of 1,000 runs in May. And still the runs flowed. Undaunted by Surrey’s opening 567, Frank Watson surpassed J.T.Tyldesley’s record 295 at Old Trafford and shared with Ernest in what is still Lancashire’s record stand for any wicket - 371; Tyldesley himself scored 187. By mid-June all three Lancashire batsmen were included in the Test Trial at Lord’s; none failed, but Tyldesley shone out with an undefeated 160 though he was missed twice prior to reaching his first 50 in two hours; thereafter he cut loose, adding 110 in 140 minutes and altogether hit one six and 19 fours. This won him a place (along with Hallows) in his first Lord’s Test where he shared in several useful partnerships whilst accumulating 122 with a six and 13 fours. Wisden commended him for “a fine display of which the outstanding feature was hard and admirably-timed driving”. Against Hampshire in July Lancashire were rescued from 51 for 3 by a stand of 159 between E.T. and Jack Iddon; Tyldesley made his sixth hundred (115) and was 80 not out in the second innings when the match was won. Returning to Lord’s with the Players he brought his season’s total at “headquarters” to a remarkable 441 runs for three times out but immediately there came disappointment for his Lancastrian fans, when he was dismissed for 3 in the Second Test against West Indies at Old Trafford. Temporarily stemmed, the flow of runs began again in mid-August. In successive innings he ran up 168 against Middlesex, 73 in the Third Test (adding 129 with Hobbs in under two hours), a practically faultless 159 in the vital Championship match with Kent during which he and Hallows added 207 for the second wicket, a scintillating 242 at Leicester and finally 118 against Sussex at Hove in the match which clinched Lancashire’s title. The Leicester innings must take pride of place; he was 202 not out when Lancashire closed the first day on 398 for 3 and all told he batted 375 minutes, taking four sixes (all off Astill) and 21 fours. The fourth wicket stand of 300 with Iddon had come in 220 minutes and when during his 118 at Hove he helped Frank Watson add 306 for the second wicket in only five minutes longer, it was the third triple hundred partnership in which he had participated in the one summer - the last two consecutively! Between August 8th and 23rd he had scored 760 runs. Features of the closing games included his being caught and bowled by the now 55-year-old Sydney Barnes representing Wales, sharing a stand of 143 in an hour with Maurice Leyland at Scarborough 45