Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

Wilson was discouraged by the change. In February, 1919 he wrote to Clem from Palestine: “I am afraid I shall be too old to have another go with these hours, even if Archie White [the Yorkshire captain in the final season before the War] wants me.” The Yorkshire club had not welcomed the new system either, but the team found it sufficient to their liking to win the Championship under a new captain, D.C.F.Burton, and with a team that – like many others – had to be rebuilt after the War. 72 Its success reflected the depth of talent available to the club. There had been some concern about the lack of good amateur cricketers capable of taking on the captaincy and some commentators bemoaned the fact that Rockley Wilson was only available for a short period each summer. David Burton had made his first-class debuts for Cambridge and for Yorkshire in 1907 but did not appear regularly for the county until 1914. However, after the War, he was to prove a useful batsman and an imaginative captain. On his return from his military service, Yorkshire’s need to supplement their bowling resources meant that, despite his own misgivings about the two-day format, the club did call on Rockley Wilson’s services when he was available in the school summer vacation. By then he had played some club cricket and had turned out for Pelham Warner’s XI against the Public Schools XI in a two-day match at Lord’s. By taking three for 75 off 33.4 overs in the Public Schools’ first innings and two for 62 off 26 overs in the second innings, he had perhaps convinced himself that he had the stamina to return to the first-class game: he would never have doubted that he had the skill. In the month of August, Rockley appeared in eight successive two-day Championship matches between 8 August and 30 August, a hectic schedule of cricket and travelling even for a younger man than Rockley. In the first of these matches against Leicestershire at Leicester, which Yorkshire won by an innings and 126 runs, Rockley scored 51 runs and with Arthur Dolphin put on 62 runs for the ninth wicket. It was to be his highest score of the season and his last fifty for the county. Bowling was to be his forte hereon. First-Class Cricket After the War 70 72 By another change this season, the championship was awarded to the team with the largest percentage of wins, not all teams playing the same number of matches at this time. It was not until some hours after Yorkshire had finished their final match and they heard that Kent had failed to beat Middlesex, that they knew they were champions. Kent had played only 14 matches, Yorkshire no fewer than 26, of which 12 were won. See Pullin, op.cit., p.148.