Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

98 The later years (1889-1904) 100 not out. At this time, Emmett would also have been overjoyed by the performances of Arthur, his eldest son (now aged 23), who was making his name for Bradford, although it would be another 10 years until he made the first of three first-class appearances for Leicestershire. Despite not having appeared in top-class cricket for several years now, Emmett senior continued to receive attention from the media, and in 1893, The Cricket Field published a special feature on him in its January edition, which was reported in many of the Yorkshire papers. Unsurprisingly, it suggested that ‘If any cricketer of experience was asked to name the professional about whom he had heard the greatest number of anecdotes, he would be almost certain to at once answer “Tom Emmett”. That summer, the much talked about Emmett played in local Rugby cricket, as well as in Scotland in August, before umpiring alongside George Ulyett at the Scarborough Festival. While many reporters were keen to tell Emmett stories, in another interview in the magazine Cricket, R.S.Holmes revealed that Emmett was writing up his own reminiscences. Whether he envisaged telling his story or producing a coaching manual is not clear, but the former player Tom Emmett in the 1890s.