Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

Harris’s 82 to be the only ‘redeeming feature in a disheartening display of county cricket’. Was this a comment on Kent’s display, or perhaps on the fitness of the ground, the match being over in two days? Scores and Biographies notes that the scoring was ‘terribly bad, and Haygarth complains that ‘the scorers employed are much to blame’; and therefore they are responsible for many of the mistakes in his work. At any rate the quaintly named Sparth Bottoms Road ground at Castleton did not see another first-class match. The return fixture at Derby also provided Watson with another harvest of wickets, ten in all, with 23.2-10-26-6 in the first innings; though Lillywhite’s Annual noted that the wickets were ‘rough and bumpy’; a common enough complaint at a time when pitches were maintained with unsophisticated machinery and methods. In the game against Sussex, who had not been played since 1869, Alec did quite well with 32 runs for once out, and in the return at Hove he again did reasonably well with the bat and took five wickets in Sussex’s second innings (25-15-22-5). Watson’s season ended at Gravesend against Kent, where he had 31 runs and six wickets in all. It had been a relatively quiet season for Watson, despite the increase in the number of matches. A late flurry with the bat gave him an average of ten, and he now tended to bat in the lower middle order. His bowling was beginning to achieve a fairly consistent level with an annual average of about twelve. Again McIntyre and Watson did the bulk of the bowling, the former taking 89 and the latter 51 (31 clean bowled) of the 174 wickets to fall to Lancashire. 1877 saw Lancashire play the same five counties as in 1876. However, Watson was engaged in a further six matches for various sides, so it was his busiest season so far in first-class cricket. It began at Lord’s on 14 May when MCC played ‘England’, Watson appearing for the latter. ‘England’ was strongly represented, the others on the side being well known at least at the time, with the possible exception of Nottinghamshire’s John Tye; MCC were also reasonably strong. Indeed Scores and Biographies Volume XIV comments that both sides had no ‘tail’. Alec batted low in the order, but performed superbly with the ball, with 42.3-20- 39-7 and 20.1-16-10-7, which was to be his best-ever reward in a match. So Watson’s first ‘representative’ match, and one at Lord’s, must surely have aroused interest and possibly an expectation of further honours, particularly as he bowled W.G.Grace for 11 in the first innings. In addition he had the wicket of Hornby in 33 The Rowley Years