Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

when he had passed his fortieth birthday, he could not have imagined that he would be able to look back at the end of the summer on so satisfactory a return to first-class cricket. His batting average in all matches was a modest 16.50, but it was as a bowler that he had impressed. In its review of the 1919 season, Wisden said of Rockley Wilson: “His slow bowling looks innocent enough, but he has great command over his pitch and there is something in the flight of the ball that makes batsmen expect a break that is not always there.” In eleven first-class matches he took 40 wickets at an average of 17.47. Three-day cricket resumed The experiment with two-day games had proved unpopular, not least with the players, and was promptly abandoned. The 1920 season was a disappointing one for Yorkshire as they dropped to fourth in the Championship, arch-rivals Middlesex taking the title. But it was to be crowned with success for Rockley Wilson as it saw his selection in the MCC party to tour Australia for the 1920/21 Ashes series. As in 1919 he played in only eight matches for Yorkshire in the Championship, and again these were all in the month of August. Norman Kilner was the player who usually had to give way to him. It was a punishing schedule, with one game followed immediately by the next. Of course, the game was less physically demanding in those days. One cannot imagine Yorkshire fielders of the 1920s throwing themselves around in the deep to save a boundary as is expected of modern players, Rockley Wilson perhaps least of all. And Rockley’s easy and economical bowling action enabled him to bowl in long spells without taking too much out of himself. Nevertheless, the amount of bowling he got through was prodigious. In this 1920 season, he bowled 379.4 overs in the eight Championship matches, an average of more than 47 overs per match. These 379 overs, yielded Rockley 39 wickets at only 15.48 each. He finished second in the Yorkshire bowling averages. In four of the eight matches Rockley Wilson took five or more wickets in an innings, an outstanding achievement in itself. In the first of these, a drawn match with Sussex at Headingley, he took five for 49 in Sussex’s first innings. The next occasion was in the match against Middlesex at Bradford, when Rockley took three for 30 in the first innings and six for 62 in the second. Against Surrey First-Class Cricket After the War 73