Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

80 Chucker? However, on examination of the main bowlers on the Players’ sides versus the Gentlemen at Lord’s between 1875 and 1889, we find that in the first five years, the most commonly recurring names are Shaw, Morley, Emmett and Ulyett. So Watson would be contesting the slow-bowler’s spot with the famous Alfred Shaw. Between 1880 and 1884 the main names were Barnes, Barlow, Bates, Peate, Ulyett and Flowers, with the noted Yorkshire spinners Bates and Peate keeping Watson out. In the final five years the Players’ main bowlers were Lohmann, Briggs, Barnes and Flowers, with Watson’s Lancashire colleague Briggs normally getting the spinner’s spot. So, during his career Watson was competing for a place in a Players’ line-up whose bowling was very strong; and with the slow bowlers’ places going to players who had at least as good a claim as Watson. Obviously there were many fine professional bowlers in England during Watson’s career, and not just the above-mentioned ones, but, since he was generally towards the top of the professional bowling averages, it is remarkable that he had only two matches for the Players, and these outside his peak seasons in the mid-1880s. Indeed Watson played only twenty matches for teams other than Lancashire. He played only four times for sides representing the North of England, and once for Players of the North; and six times for scratch ‘England’ teams. Also he played only four times for sides raised by fellow professionals at a time when matches involving such sides were relatively common. Perhaps Watson felt reluctant to engage in matches outside his Lancashire commitments, but there is no evidence of that, apart from the fact that from 1880 to 1893 he was in charge of the groundstaff, and for six years the ground itself, at Old Trafford; which may have restricted his time for other engagements. Thus we are faced with the fact that, while Lancashire were always willing to select Watson when he was available, other individuals and bodies seem to have been less keen to do so, even when his performances for Lancashire might seem to have attracted others to select him for their sides. Lancashire may have felt able to ‘tough out’ criticism of some of their bowlers – Crossland and Mold were only forced out of cricket by the actions of others – but it would seem probable that others were more wary of the risk of opprobrium if they selected Watson. In drawing the strands of this issue together, we again come to two factors. Firstly, whatever may have been the mutterings in pavilions and press tents, as far as I am aware no one seems