Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

nations.” 85 A safe conclusion is that the business did the Test careers of Rockley Wilson and Percy Fender no good at all. In fact Rockley Wilson was never again selected to play for his country. The Australians were the visitors in the 1921 domestic season, with the Australian party and Douglas’ defeated MCC party travelling to Britain on the same ship. Warwick Armstrong’s side carried on where they had left off in Australia, winning the first three Tests to make it eight victories in succession against England. Wilson would have been available for the Fourth Test at Old Trafford which immediately followed Yorkshire’s match with the Australians at Bramall Lane in which Rockley Wilson did play. Throughout the summer the selectors had been ringing the changes in the side, including replacing Douglas as captain by the Hon L.H.Tennyson after the First Test. Wilson was not selected for the Fourth Test however, or for the final Test at The Oval, both of which were drawn to provide some modest consolation for the home side. It is not particularly surprising that the selectors did not turn to Rockley at this late stage in the series, however good were his performances in county cricket. The England teams had been shown to be inadequate in batting (with Jack Hobbs’ absence throughout from injury and illness being a grievous loss), quick bowling and fielding. England’s fielding in the Second Test prompted Wisden’ s editor to observe, “Never before was an England side so slow and slovenly.” It is hard to see how, at the age of 43 years, Rockley Wilson could be expected to make good any of these deficiencies. And as to later Tests, there was no overseas tour in 1921/22 and no Test matches in the domestic 1922 season. By the time that an MCC team needed to be chosen for the 1922/23 tour of South Africa, under the captaincy of F.T.Mann, Rockley Wilson’s first-class career, let alone his Test career, was clearly drawing to a close. So Rockley Wilson became a member of the “one Test club.” We can guess that Rockley would have taken wry satisfaction from the knowledge that he was joining a company of many other well-known cricketers. Australia and After 89 85 Hobbs, op.cit., p.186.