Lives in Cricket No 39 - Alec Watson

88 Beyond First-Class Cricket of cricket equipment, but it also catered for other sports such as tennis. Watson, and indeed Pilling, could use their contacts in cricket to get the best equipment and to bring in customers. The last would probably have been well satisfied, for, as noted above, Watson would have no truck with inferior goods. In addition to selling cricket equipment Watson also designed it, and he showed off to the Athletic News reporter a new batting glove that he had designed which batsmen found more comfortable than the original one. It must have been a great blow to Watson when Pilling died in 1891, after a protracted bout of ill health, but Alec continued to develop the business: ‘Did you ever see a Scotchman who wasn’t for getting on?’ This ‘Scotchman’ went on to open branches in Manchester at 39 Piccadilly and, just around the corner, at 11 Lever Street, the former eventually becoming the main shop. That avid cricket enthusiast, the Scots novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie, probably did not have Watson in mind when he wrote the following, but he seems to have exemplified Barrie’s point: ‘A young Scotsman of your ability let loose upon the world with £300, what could he not do? It’s almost appalling to think of; especially if he went among the English.... There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.’ ( What Every Woman Knows ). Site of shop at 11 Lever Street, with 39 Piccadilly in background.