Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

matches against local club sides. More in the nature of social events, between 1885 and 1891 Rex Wilson raised invitation sides to play local teams and other invitation elevens in Bolsterstone. In 1891, a team entirely made up of Wilson family members, including Rockley, played an eleven of Smiths, with the Wilsons winning the two innings match by ten wickets. 7 There was even a Ladies against Gentlemen match at Middleton Hall, home of Cyril Wilson, where Rockley captained the Ladies XI – presumably because he was the youngest – and his four brothers played for the Gentlemen, who were required to bat with broomsticks but were still victorious. Details of the cricketing lives of the Wilson brothers at least into the 1920s are documented in a number of scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings compiled by Clem and later, and less methodically, by Rockley. The scrapbooks contain scorecards of The Wilson Family 15 The Sheffield Collegiate side which played Hallam in either 1897 or 1898. Standing (l to r): Umpire Pring, F.Allan, G.Bott, F.Wood, Rev A.R.Wilson. Seated: J.W.Aizlewood, J.M.Clayton, H.B.Willey, C.R.Wilson, Dr H.Lockwood. On the ground: H.Willey, E.R.Wilson and “Joe”. 7 There are suggestions that a repeat fixture took place in 1901 but no record of such a match has been unearthed.