Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

87 Beyond First-Class Cricket in the match in 1879 between Skipton and the United South of England. However, he still seems to have been in demand for coaching school teams, for Thompson notes that in 1910 he came to Coatbridge to visit family members there, as he often did, after a couple of seasons’ coaching at Loretto School in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh. Of course, during all this time he was maintaining his business interests, to which attention must now be turned. Firstly Watson seems to have had an interest in the laying out and maintenance of cricket grounds. Thompson tells us that he was in charge of the ground staff at Old Trafford from 1880 to 1893, but he appears to have relinquished the actual responsibility for maintaining the playing area to the assistant secretary, Fred Reynolds, in 1886. In the Athletic Journal in 1887 Watson claimed that in 1880 the ground was in a ‘deplorable condition’, but that, when he handed it over in 1886, there was ‘NOT A BETTER GROUND IN ENGLAND’, mainly due to his getting rid of over 500 bad spots and re-draining the ground. This would imply that Watson did not ‘doctor’ Old Trafford pitches to suit his own bowling! When the same journal asked what he did in the winter, Watson replied that he laid out cricket and tennis grounds. No doubt the experience gained at Old Trafford helped in that respect, as would his various contacts in cricket. Comparatively speaking, lawn tennis was a very modern sport then and apparently increasing in popularity. The ‘tennis grounds’ would probably be all grass then, and many cricket clubs would have them at their grounds as an added attraction for members, in the same way as they built squash courts a century later. Thus Watson would have little difficulty in transferring his skills to the laying out of tennis courts. While he was later to sell football equipment in his shops, Watson took little part in that game, at a time when a number of Scottish-born players were beginning to make an impact in English football. However, it was really his benefit match in 1885 that started Watson’s business career. That raised in excess of £1,100, a record at that time, and was proof of his popularity with the Lancashire public. He would seem to have spent the bulk of that then considerable sum in going into partnership with Richard Pilling, the Lancashire wicket-keeper, for whom he had a very high regard. They might have gone into the inn-keeping business, as many of their fellow players did on retirement, but in fact they followed other ex-players in setting up a retail sports equipment and outfitting business, at 35 Oxford Street in the heart of Manchester. From extant advertisements it is clear that it offered a wide range