Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

16 Surrey fixture by handing Willsher his debut and recalling the left-arm fast bowler Edmund Hinkly. The latter, like Wenman born in Benenden, was already 33, but had only started playing for Kent in 1846. In 1848, in his first appearance at Lord’s, he amazed onlookers by taking all ten wickets in England’s second innings, a feat unparalleled at the time. He almost repeated it in the corresponding fixture at Canterbury in 1849, but this time he had to content himself with a mere eight victims. On the face of it, Hinkly was the natural successor to Mynn and Hillyer as leader of the attack, but, like a comet, he flared brilliantly but all too briefly, and it would increasingly be left to Willsher to take on the mantle. So it was that Edgar set foot on The Oval’s hallowed outfield for the first time on 11 July. He was to be the ninth of ten bowlers used as a fine Surrey side rattled up 246 by the close of the first day. Despite the match situation, he could be pleased with his efforts. With four wickets, he was the most successful bowler of the ten used, although we do not know his full analysis. However, this promising performance passed without fanfare, Bell’s Life merely noting that he was ‘a young player’. Kent’s first innings was an inglorious 52, and Willsher, not out for nought at the end, must have kept his pads on, as he was asked to open in the follow-on. He batted stoically for eight, but it made little difference as a crushing innings defeat loomed. After such a start, it was unsurprising that Edgar found himself in the ‘squad’ of 14 to play England at Cranbrook, only six miles from his birthplace. In the end, he was denied a happy homecoming, and had to console himself with a game for Stilebridge instead. As implied above, the mid-nineteenth century sporting press, whilst regaling its readers with frequent classical allusions and assessments of those of the ‘fairer sex’ in attendance at big matches, is rarely very helpful when it comes to judging a player’s performance or ability. Thus it is worth including a particularly prescient comment from The Era concerning Edgar’s appearance for Bearsted against East Kent that year: We like to be early in noticing talent, regardless of the quarter from which it may come. The match … affords us an opportunity of introducing a family of cricketers, all of The Big Time Willsher at the start of his Kent career.