Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

49 The anni mirabiles The benefit system was meant to reward professionals who had given good, regular service for a county over, say, 10 to15 years. Generally a player was awarded a match, usually one that would attract spectators, and the net receipts would be given to him. In addition collections might be taken from spectators willing to show their appreciation of the individual concerned, and added to the total. The drawback was that the relevant match might be ruined by the weather or be over quickly, and the player benefiting might have little recompense. Watson’s final total might well have represented at least a decade’s earnings from his actual play for the club. There was a suspicion that the benefit system was an excuse for paying low basic wages, but many used it to provide, as Watson did, for their years after retirement from the game. Nowadays benefit matches are less important as beneficiaries engage in a year-long intensive fundraising effort. Against Gloucestershire at home he took eight wickets in all, including 56-33-61-5 in the first innings, with another eight at Derby, including a seven for 38. On the southern tour there were no matches against Somerset and Kent, the latter having refused to play the return against Lancashire, despite Crossland now being disqualified for them. However, against Gloucestershire Watson had five wickets for 43, and at The Oval he scored 46 for once out and had another ‘five-for’ (35-22-34-5). Watson was also involved in matches against Cheshire and Essex, played to fill the blanks left in their programme as other counties refused to play them, and took 22 wickets in four matches. Definition between first- class and second-class counties was sometimes blurred, and again rather depended on press opinions. For instance, Derbyshire and Hampshire had, and then lost, first-class status. Also in 1885 Alec appeared for George Biddulph’s team against Radcliffe and District at Radcliffe CC’s new ground, where he took eight for 12. This shows that he was willing to fill in the gaps in his season by playing for anyone wanting his services. Perhaps he had laid out the new ground for, as we shall see, laying out new grounds was also now part of his repertoire. Watson’s batting average in 1885 was 20.76 from 353 runs. As Wisden remarked in its eulogy: ‘Although never what could be called a first-rate batsman, he had time after time shown himself a determined and vigorous hitter, always likely to play a good innings at a critical point of a match.’ He had one more wicket, with 88, and his average of 15.27 was also one better; it included seven five-wicket hauls. Wisden mentioned Watson’s continuing