Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

61 besides Watson, in 1887 they were Briggs and Barlow; while in Watson’s last full season they were Briggs and Mold. While Briggs and Nash were slow bowlers, they were left-handed. So over twenty years Watson was the only right-hand slow bowler that Lancashire employed consistently. He himself was consistent too in his wicket-taking. He reached 250 wickets after about 10,000 deliveries, passed the 500 mark after another 10,500 or so, 750 was reached in the next 12,000, the 1,000 came in another 13,500, and 1,250 was attained in about 11,500 further balls. Though there are obvious variations, Watson generally took wickets at a fairly consistent rate under various captains, and against the succession of notable batsmen mentioned above. It can be seen then that for much of Watson’s career Lancashire relied on only three front-line bowlers, with occasional help from others; at times it was down to two. Since bowlers were mainly professionals, this may have seemed an economy. However, filling up playing spaces with amateurs could lead into the trap of amateurs’ expenses claims; though probably most amateurs were not as notoriously rapacious in that respect as W.G.Grace reputedly was. As noted above in the descriptions of matches there may have been times when Alec played while carrying an injury, possibly a self-defeating expedient; Lancashire were lucky in that he actually missed so few matches. It may be a coincidence, but in the early 1880s, when Lancashire had rather more depth and variety in their attack, they were usually reckoned to be at or near the top of the ‘championship’; though Hornby’s captaincy may also have been a factor in that. Lancashire also did comparatively well in this closing part of Watson’s career as he was joined by Briggs and Mold. In his last full season of batting Watson was again in the eleven- plus area. He bowled just under 600 overs, almost half were maidens, and the rate of concession, at about 1.5 runs per over, was as miserly as ever. 61 wickets at less than fifteen runs each was also a good reward and an improvement on 1891. With Briggs and Mold he bowled the vast majority of Lancashire’s overs, and was by no means overshadowed by the younger men. Wisden ‘heartily congratulated’ them, while Watson’s hand, even after twenty years’ bowling ‘had not lost its cunning’. However, though Watson had claimed in the above interview that he ‘could bowl all day without feeling tired’, that could not go on forever. The 1893 season began again at Lord’s, with Watson’s last visit there as a first-class cricketer. He had 20 for once out with the Slow Decline and Sudden End