Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

46 side’s first innings, but scored 18 in the second. He had been called up as a late replacement for Walter Robinson, though one would have thought that his current form merited his being a first choice. Watson was, however, more successful in Lancashire’s end-of-season tour against the three southern counties. He had 35.3-18-38-5 against Kent, seven wickets in the match at The Oval, and scored 22 and 26* against Gloucestershire. Unusually, Watson’s season was not yet over, for he had three non-county matches still to play. His batting form continued with 37 runs for the North against the South at Tunbridge Wells, and he took five-wickets-per-inning-hauls. His final two matches were for fellow Lancastrian R.G. Barlow’s XI versus T. Emmett’s XI. In the first match, at Holbeck, Watson did little in an eleven that was well provided with bowlers, mostly from Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, but at Batley he shone with both bat and ball; with 27 and 68* and five wickets (29-13-32-5) to wind up a fine season. A generally good season with the bat saw Watson’s average rise to 17.84, with 13 catches. His aggregate of 446 runs was his highest in a season. His haul of 96 wickets equalled his best in a season so far, and with an average of 11.82, and nine five wicket per innings hauls, he headed the national bowling averages. Wisden noted the excellence of that in a season when conditions had favoured batsmen more than in 1882. It also noted that Crossland’s bowling had caused ‘unpleasantness’, and that there had been open complaint at Gravesend and The Oval as well as at Trent Bridge. Again the umpires had done nothing, and again there was no open objection to Watson. Lillywhite’s Annual praised the fine performances of the ‘veterans’ Watson and fellow slow bowler Alfred Shaw. It too bemoaned the umpires’ lack of action; while MCC had sat on its hands. Unfortunately for Alec there was no visit from Australia in 1883, nor a visit there in 1883-1884, so there was no opportunity to see whether that ‘veteran’s’ performance would have influenced the selectors. In 1884 Alec played for an ‘England XI’ against the touring Australians at Aston, where the latter won in one day. Watson had a few runs, but no chance to bowl. Then it was back to Old Trafford to face the Australians again. The match was rain-affected, but Alec took four wickets in each innings. Watson’s third chance against the Australians came for Liverpool and District, but his success was fairly limited. It was not until the match at Derby in August that Watson’s bowling began to get into its stride, with The anni mirabiles