Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

with the ball, though he did take five wickets in the Gentlemen’s first innings of the second match (when they totalled 312, by far the highest innings score of either side on the tour), but at a cost of 100 runs from 17.3 six-ball overs. His final tally in the two games was eight wickets at 19.00. At this distance in time it is impossible to account for Wilson’s lack of success, especially after a satisfactory season in 1901 for Cambridge. He was young and inexperienced and would have found the playing conditions and surroundings unfamiliar. But he was not alone in that of course. The tour involved much travelling but at a leisurely pace and on some trips at least in some comfort. Rockley was never physically strong but fatigue hardly seems an explanation. Nor does it seem likely, given his background and personality, that Rockley would have been in anyway overawed by the occasion or by his team-mates, most of whom, like himself, had only limited first-class experience. Subsequently V.F.S. Crawford had a reasonably lengthy and successful career with Surrey and Leicestershire, but he also had little success on the tour. Only two of the party (other than Rockley) were to play Test cricket, Bosanquet and Frank Mitchell, the Yorkshireman who played two Tests for England and three for South Africa. Bosanquet finished top of the batting averages and second in the bowling. Mitchell, second in the batting averages, left the tour before the final match to begin the long journey back to South Africa. It is hard to imagine that Wilson felt out of place in the company of these players. Whatever the reasons for his disappointing performance, we can be sure that Rockley would not turn down any chance to make amends. As it happened just such an opportunity was soon to present itself. Tour of West Indies Hardly had Rockley had time to contemplate a winter spent at home in Bolsterstone, no doubt waiting impatiently for the start of the 1902 season, when he was invited to participate in a second overseas tour, this time to the West Indies with a party of University cricketers captained by R.A.Bennett, who played a few matches for Hampshire between 1896 and 1899. The party was to sail from Southampton immediately after the New Year and would barely be back in England before the start of the domestic season. To Rockley Wilson the tour would have appeared a heaven-sent opportunity to see more of the world and its different cultures and School and University 33