Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

example, he proposed the motion that women should be given the vote in Parliamentary elections: perhaps predictably, given the venue and the year, the motion was lost by 36 votes to 12. Rockley also unsuccessfully opposed the motion that sport was damaged by the increasing participation of professional players, arguing that professionalism was better than sham amateurism, “under which a man could find a mysterious five pound note in his boot after the match.” Although Rockley confided in one of the school debates that he “was quite looking forward to an athletic career under academic auspices in the States,” it was taken for granted by both school and family that Rockley would go up to Cambridge to continue his classical education. In the event Wilson did well enough scholastically for that purpose though, as one of his reports had it, he gave “two thoughts to cricket to every one to his work.” It was no surprise that Rockley Wilson was made Head of School for his final year and he expected to continue as cricket captain in his final season. But it was not to be. Rockley Wilson’s final year at Rugby ended ignominiously. As cricket historian Anthony Woodhouse intriguingly put it, a “difference of opinion with authority caused E.R.Wilson to leave Rugby early” 18 and the consequence was that he played no cricket for the school in the 1898 season and the captaincy was handed to C.S.Hannay in his stead. The “difference of opinion” arose this way. Having been awarded the prize in a Latin competition for which he was unprepared, he admitted that he had submitted the (unsuccessful) entry of a previous student. Cheating could not be tolerated at Rugby School. Despite his prompt confession, though not formally expelled Rockley was required to leave the school forthwith. There was no public reference to the incident and its consequences. The school magazine had reported Rockley’s appearances for the school cricket team over the previous three seasons in detail, and publicised his arrangements for net practice for the 1898 season, but from then on he might as well have ceased to exist. We can be sure that his misdemeanour would have caused his parents much distress – it was said of his father that “he quietly boasted that he strictly adhered to the great truths of the Bible.” 19 It is not surprising that, having left the school early, Rockley spent School and University 22 18 Anthony Woodhouse, A Who’s Who of Yorkshire County Cricket Club , Breedon Books, 1992, p.227. 19 Hallamshire Worthies , J.W.Northend, 1927, p.147.