Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

were coupled with an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of both the opposition and his own side. There had been signs of ruthlessness in his captaincy, for example in the way he sought to overcome the weakness of the Cambridge bowling attack, which would have appealed to his Yorkshire team-mates. The captaincy of Yorkshire might have been a sinecure for some previous amateurs pitched into that position, but this was certainly not the case for Rockley Wilson, even in a team that included such seasoned professionals as Rhodes and Emmott Robinson. He would have relished the opportunity to apply his acute cricketing brain and knowledge of the game to the challenges of leading a Championship-topping team. Rockley proved to be an astute if rather cautious substitute for his namesake, earning the respect of his professional team-mates for his obvious tactical awareness (not a strong point of Geoffrey Wilson) and the way he handled the powerful Yorkshire bowling attack - though like many other bowler-captains, Rockley bowled himself notably less than his regular captain might have done, Roy Kilner being the bowler who benefited most from this modesty. Of the seven Championship matches in which Rockley Wilson was captain, three were won, one lost, two drawn and one abandoned after only 12 minutes play – this match, against Essex, clinched the Championship – and Rockley had the honour and good fortune of bringing the Championship back to Headingley. In the Roses match at Old Trafford, when Rockley Wilson took over the captaincy from his namesake, he was involved in a most controversial last wicket partnership with Wilfred Rhodes. The bare facts are that Yorkshire needed 132 in their second innings of a low scoring match to win. When Rockley Wilson, last man because of Geoffrey Wilson’s absence, joined Rhodes the score was 108 for eight: Lancashire had claimed the extra half-hour and seemed set for victory themselves. Indeed, the rest of the Yorkshire team had left the ground to begin the journey to Gloucester for the next match, never expecting other than defeat for their side. At the ground tension increased as Yorkshire’s score inched upwards and, by the final over, four runs were still required for victory. Although one of the remaining deliveries was a no-ball, Rhodes made no serious attempt to get the runs required and the match finished with Yorkshire two runs short of their target. Wilfred Rhodes was 48 not out, Rockley Wilson two not out after seven overs of stonewalling. Referring afterwards to this match, Herbert Sutcliffe commented: “We knew E.R.Wilson was about the Back to County Cricket 93