Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

56 A committee was formed early in the year from members of the St George’s Club of New York, and the Philadelphia, Germantown and Young America Clubs of Philadelphia, and it appears that Willsher had always been the man that they had in mind. Certainly, the combination of recent notoriety and general popularity amongst his fellow professionals made him a marketable choice, and the terms on offer for two months work were appealing to him. Each player was to receive $250 (£50) in gold, plus $7.50 a day and all travel expenses. In addition, they were to take part in several baseball matches in return for a third of the gate money. Not bad recompense for someone in the twilight of his career. All in all, though, the deal was no more favourable than the $50 plus expenses offered to Parr’s pioneers of 1859, as accommodation had to be paid for out of the $7.50 allowance, and returns from novelty baseball matches would be uncertain at best. This may explain the fact that Willsher’s twelve, although of good quality, was not fully representative of the cream of English professional cricket. In contrast, the group so colourfully chronicled in Frederick Lillywhite’s The English Cricketers’ Trip was the pick of the AEE and the UEE, with Parr himself, at the peak of his game, joined by legends such as Wisden and Jackson in the bowling department, and batsmen Hayward and Carpenter of Cambridgeshire. The Montreal Gazette summed up the general feeling when it opined that ‘a stronger eleven, if not two, could be chosen out of the professionals left at home.’ The fact that batsmen of the calibre of Richard Daft, Hayward and Carpenter could not be prevailed upon to make the trip was probably as much to do with the stomach-churning nature of an autumnal Atlantic crossing as anything else. The latter pair, along with all of the rest of the class of ‘59, would have needed far greater financial incentive to undergo that particular unpleasantness again. Indeed, the only members of the twelve who had experienced a long sea voyage were George Griffith, who went to Australia in 1861/62, and George Tarrant, who toured the same country in 1863/64. The rest of the party would simply have to take their chances. Another George, Wootton of Nottinghamshire, was notable by his absence, as was the great James Southerton of Surrey and Sussex, who had been the leading wicket-taker in 1868 with 150 at 13.86. Otherwise the bowling was full strength. As well as Willsher, Griffith (although on this tour he bowled mainly slow under-arm lobs) and Tarrant, the pace quartet included Yorkshire’s 25-year- Captain of England