Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

68 Captain of England At this juncture, the tourists were en route to Montreal, with the more serious business of cricket on their minds. They could reflect on a job professionally done, and the authorities could be satisfied that the first leg of the trip had been a success, both financially and in the promotion of the rival summer game. Only the New York Clipper offered a dissenting voice, concluding scathingly: With the single exception of a hungry representative of the fourth estate, who is always about when there is anything to eat, and who generally toadies to anybody and everything that will afford him a chance for a ‘free lunch’, the efforts of the club to have the ‘great match’ written up so as to attract a multitude was a signal failure. There was no doubt cricket was becoming increasingly hard to sell to native-born Americans, and publicity like this did not help. However, the more discerning reader was well aware that such invective could be treated with a pinch of salt – the Clipper and the St George’s Club were destined never to see eye to eye.