Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

67 10-104 Lancashire Sussex Old Trafford 1877 10-104 Lancashire Oxford University Old Trafford 1888 10-131 Lancashire Derbyshire Old Trafford 1874 Bowling for selected sides: Team Runs Wickets Average Lancashire 17514 1309 13.37 ‘England’/‘England XI’ 244 25 9.76 North 233 23 10.13 Bowling against selected sides: Team Runs Wickets Average Derbyshire 2038 216 9.43 Kent 2325 191 12.17 Yorkshire 2283 168 13.58 Surrey 1939 137 14.15 Nottinghamshire 1686 112 15.05 MCC 1251 108 11.58 Sussex 1236 108 11.44 Gloucestershire 1638 106 15.45 Oxford University 1486 92 16.15 Somerset 438 34 12.88 Australians 547 28 19.53 Middlesex 770 25 30.80 Bowling on selected grounds: Ground Runs Wickets Average Manchester 7654 604 12.67 Lord’s 1824 130 14.03 Derby 870 102 8.52 The Oval 1067 66 16.16 Nottingham 980 54 18.14 Alec Watson’s bowling, like his batting and fielding, was very consistent. If one ignores his earliest and last seasons, his average lay in a range from about eleven runs per wicket taken to about sixteen. However, he felt that his batting was affected by bowling so much, and that it was very difficult to be a true all-rounder; W.G.Grace being the exception. In any case Watson found bowling less of a strain than batting. Naturally he had his ups and downs, but to maintain such consistency over twenty seasons was remarkable. Likewise his level of fitness seems to have been consistent, with him missing no Lancashire matches between 1874 and 1891, in which two seasons he seems to have been injured or ill. He missed a total of seven matches, apparently Selected Statistics