Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

100 The later years (1889-1904) Back home in Yorkshire in the summer of 1894, Emmett played two matches for Brighouse in the West Riding League, along with Ted Peate, and against Elland he took 5-31. During the year, R.S.Holmes reported that he had seen Emmett in flannels playing in a benefit match for an old club bowler. He was described as being ‘as frisky as ever, by many years the youngest and liveliest man in the field.’ He was also in high spirits after the success of his Rugby School side at Lord’s, but was disappointed – as he had been in 1893 – about aspects of their performance, showing he remained a man who was never satisfied. Intriguingly, Holmes reported again that Emmett had now written some of his reminiscences, although he (Emmett) was not happy with them, commenting ‘Too much detail!!’ He promised to send them to Holmes for inspection when he was more content with the text. However, the experience of putting down his thoughts in writing proved a painful one for Emmett and by his own admission he made limited progress. The following spring, Holmes reported to readers of Cricket that he had heard from Emmett, who wrote: The fact is, that I am not much of a hand in writing about myself, and as I should have to give a description of the difficulties I had to contend with when I was a boy, I am bound to say something about myself. Then again I have not much confidence in myself as a writer; in fact, I have never shown anybody what I have already dotted down. If he got any further, Emmett promised Holmes would be the one he would ‘inflict’ it on. Sadly, it appears that his efforts again came to nothing, and many years later Athletic News reported he had not been successful. In August 1895, Emmett was a member of the Rugby Ramblers side that toured north Wales. He also enjoyed a brief holiday at Stockton, where he was described as ‘hale and hearty’. Emmett had maintained his connections with the north-east since the 1870s, and in fact appears to have owned a small plot of land at Redcar, on which was situated a piggery, run by another man. At times, Emmett visited to check up on it, and on one occasion he was amused to learn from the occupant of the land – who obviously did not recognise him - that it was owned by a man called Emmett, an old cricketer, who had now died. The writer of the article said he had heard many other stories of Emmett whilst visiting the north-east, but sadly would refrain from telling them. It was perhaps during the same visit to Stockton that Emmett paid a visit to his old friend George Freeman, after hearing from a man on a train that Freeman had not attended the Thirsk market recently as he was ill. Although he was in bed when he saw him, Emmett was later shocked to hear that Freeman had died, and grateful that the two of them had seen each other before he passed away. Around this time, Emmett was the victim of a deception, described in a report in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph headed ‘Fraudulent use of Tom Emmett’s name’. Thomas Benson (alias Thomas Hampton and numerous other names), a 40-year-old draper, made the acquaintance of Emmett during a match at Rugby in the late summer of 1895. Appearing to have