Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

32 as a whole from neglect. The Club was also losing money as a consequence of results on the field. Although Willsher had been joined by two fine bowlers in Fred Hollands and George Bennett, there were just not enough professionals of merit to uphold the county’s high reputation. As a response to an increasingly desperate situation, the brothers Edward and Henry Bligh, uncles of Ivo, the ‘Ashes’ captain of 1882/83, called a meeting to sort out the mess. A new club was formed with a new committee that included players like Wenman and Alfred Mynn, and a new constitution that proposed taking power away from Canterbury by not having a regular ground and thus bringing the team to all parts of the county. Thus a solution was found for the moment, but whether the truce could hold was anybody’s guess. On the field the next three seasons were a golden era for Edgar, leading to a haul of 246 wickets at an average of 10.10 in just 43 first-class matches. Notable among his performances was that in the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s in 1861, when he and Jackson, operating unchanged in both innings, destroyed the cream of amateur batsmanship. The six wickets he took in At Enville Hall The All-England Eleven of 1861. Standing (l to r): E.Willsher, H.H.Stephenson, G.Parr, unidentified, T.Hayward, G.F.Tarrant, G.Anderson, R.C.Tinley, J.Jackson. On the ground: A.Clarke, R.P.Carpenter. In this year, Willsher played three matches for this side against the United England Eleven, at Lord’s, Old Trafford and at The Oval.