Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

84 Chapter Twelve Winding Down The continued respect in which Willsher was held by all, including the game’s establishment, was amply illustrated on his return to England in the winter of 1868/69. In a minute dated 1 December, the managing committee of Kent County Cricket Club resolved that no other professional should be asked to play in all the club’s matches, a considerable accolade when we bear in mind that no fewer than six players had been so honoured only four years previously. As it turned out, he had another six full seasons of county cricket left in him, with a couple of farewell appearances in 1875. Having secured himself gainful employment for a further season, he spent much of the rest of the winter trying to improve the lot of his fellow professionals, in his role as a committee member of the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society (CFFS). After two seasons without a match played for the benefit of the fund, it was in severe danger of having to be wound up, unless well-attended fixtures were arranged for the coming seasons. Reluctantly, partly at Willsher’s instigation, Parr and the other dissenting northerners attended a meeting held in London on New Year’s Eve, 1868 to discuss the society’s future. It soon became clear that the north- south divide was still very much a live issue in the minds of the older members, who abstained when a resolution was passed to raise weekly sickness payments to £2 per week. Their wish for the dissolution of the Society became clear when Parr, Hayward and Carpenter all refused to have anything to do with proposed North v South matches, a decision which caused the Sporting Gazette to vent its spleen in no uncertain terms: We dare say it is heretical to make the assertion, but we venture nevertheless to affirm that it would not be difficult to find three as “good men and true” as this pig-headed trio . Why don’t the youngsters of the North … throw down the gage to the South? There was cricket – and very superior cricket too – before Parr, Carpenter and Hayward honoured the world by coming into it; and we fancy there will be cricket after they have retired from the scene of their triumphs.