Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

may have been: but long and inconvenient journeys were part of the life of first-class cricketers in the 1920s. The three end-of-season matches in which Wilson captained Yorkshire were all drawn. In the match against MCC at Scarborough Rockley and Waddington shared a useful last wicket stand of 34 in Yorkshire’s first innings total of 337 and Rockley then took three for 30 off 15 overs as MCC were dismissed for 180. But MCC hung on at 130 for seven wickets in their second innings to deny Yorkshire victory. In the Gentlemen v Players match at Scarborough, Rockley Wilson’s last appearance in a representative match, he failed to score in both his innings (though was not out in one), took a couple of wickets in the Players’ first innings and then that of Jack Hobbs, the only wicket to fall in the Player’s second innings. At The Oval for Yorkshire against the Rest of England, Rockley also had little success with the bat but he took four for 30 in the Rest’s only completed innings in which Jack Hobbs scored a masterly 100 out of 207. While his own performances in these matches were not outstanding, Rockley no doubt relished these further opportunities to lead the side that had won the Championship so convincingly. For Yorkshire, 1923 was a wonderful season. They were champions again and overwhelming so. With a powerful batting line-up and a varied and high-quality bowling attack backed by efficient fielding, Yorkshire lost only one match of the 32 played in the Championship and only one of 35 matches in all. (They won 25 championship matches, more than any other side before or since.) The one defeat was off Nottinghamshire at Headingley in June by the slender margin of three runs. The team developed into a ruthless match-winning combination. The uncompromising way in which Yorkshire went about their business did not appeal to all their opponents however, and there were even complaints about unsporting behaviour, including picking the seam of the ball and deliberate slow scoring. There was, as one Yorkshire cricket historian later put it, “a growing conviction among some spectators and some players that success was an inherent right and failure a blasphemy against God and nature.” 90 The growing hostility was to erupt in the following season when Middlesex threatened to discontinue their fixtures with Yorkshire. Back to County Cricket 95 90 Derek Hodgson, The Official History of Yorkshire County Cricket Club , The Crowood Press, 1989, p.114.