Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

26 pleased with their investment, for in his third match, the last game of the season against 22 of Hampshire, he helped dismiss the opposition for 34 in a tight finish by taking 11 wickets. Edgar had achieved recognition of sorts at the start of the season, being engaged as a net bowler by the gentlemen students of Oxford University, alongside other top professionals like Caffyn and Surrey’s Julius Caesar. This was a good portent for the rest of the season, and he ended it with a highly satisfactory 21 first-class wickets in six matches at an average of 14.14. The biggest feather in his cap was appearing in the annual North v South match, one of the top two representative fixtures in these pre-international times, along with Gentlemen v Players. It was a quiet debut, as he was not required to bowl, but he did at least get to open the South’s first innings with Julius Caesar. His old friends Hinkly and Hillyer bowled unchanged through both innings as the South cruised home by 70 runs. Everything was beginning to fall into place for Ned, and the final piece in the jigsaw was just about to be added. Clearly, his impressive performances both for and against the UEE had convinced William Clarke that he needed the Kent man’s allround skills, and from 1854 Edgar became an All- England stalwart, never to play regularly for its rivals again. With the All-England Eleven