Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

58 leading light in the AEE and therefore well used to batting against teams of 22 as he would have to throughout his jaunt through North America. The numbers were made up by the youngster of the party, Sussex’s Henry Charlwood, a promising but unproven 21-year-old, and the veteran Yorkshireman, roly-poly Joseph Rowbotham, at this stage of his career more useful as a longstop than anything else. Finally, the ‘loose cannon’ was Surrey’s Edward Pooley, a brilliant but personally flawed wicketkeeper. The Sporting Gazette , while appreciative of his prowess behind the stumps, sounded a warning note: Pooley’s dextrous wicket-keeping will earn for him golden opinions from the Yankees, if his usual accompanying foolery does not disgust them. Overall, it considered the selections very suitable for an arduous trip: The list includes two, at least, of the ‘fast school’ of professionals, but, speaking generally, we have every confidence in the whole of the team that has been sent out, and believe that they will conduct themselves as well socially as they are certain to professionally … this visit to America will also, we hope, do great things for our home cricket, for the team is made up of several North and South of England young players, who will probably commence a friendship which ought to be thoroughly cemented before their return, and so a good deal more of the horrid cricket schism may perhaps fall away. At the time of sailing, six matches against odds had been fixed, but more were hoped for; as usual with early cricket tours, the itinerary was necessarily fluid. The plan was to start with a game in New York against the ‘United States’, before moving to Montreal to play the local garrison and friends. The cricketing circus would then stop in Boston for one match, and return to New York for the grand finale after whetting the appetite with two more games against Philadelphia’s finest. There was a possibility that more fixtures would be arranged, but much depended on the results of fund-raising and the interest shown in those games already confirmed. Much encouragement was to be gained from the fact that $4,500 had been pledged in Philadelphia alone, along with $1,000 in Montreal. It had been agreed that half the overall liability was to be met by the St George’s Club, with the remainder shared between the Philadelphia clubs, and as their target had been only $3,000 the denizens of the City of Love had every reason to be pleased with themselves. Captain of England