Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

107 the county to qualify for the Second-Class Championship. One reporter commented that ‘His duty can fittingly include advice to the County Committee as to the merits of the young players for whom he will umpire.’ Athletic News was pleased that the club was renewing its relationships with some of its old players like Emmett, noting that sadly Rowbotham, Bates, Thewlis and Peate had all died over the winter. Emmett was also umpire for the Yorkshire v West Indies game in August. However, the arrangement was not to last, and in 1901 he was replaced by James Yeadon, who had appeared three times for Yorkshire in 1888 and had been a first-class umpire, as well as a fellow professional at Bradford with Emmett more than ten years earlier. It is unclear whether the ending of the engagement was connected to his health problems, which may have become more evident during the year. According to E.J.Radcliffe, who captained Yorkshire in 1911, Emmett then took up an appointment at Downside School, near Bath. Lord Hawke had secured the coaching post for Emmett, but Radcliffe remembered that he was ‘really beyond his job in 1901. He was, as he had always been, a great and really amusing wit, but having been afflicted to his detriment with an ever present thirst, he was more intent on warning the young against the evils of alcohol than on teaching cricket. Constantly did he say ‘Mr Radcliffe beware o’drink for it was fair ruin o’ me!’ Poor old Emmett became a great responsibility of mine, and one day it was reported to me he had not been seen for twenty-four hours. In due course he was found wandering on the railway line and taken to Leicester Asylum where he died.’ 71 As we shall see, this last point was not actually true and casts doubt on some of the other recollections, but suggests that much was not well during the period. The final years were sad ones for Emmett. ‘Old Ebor’ commented at the time of his death that they were ‘in dark contrast to the sunniness of his cricketing days.’ Signs that he was in some personal trouble can be seen in an article by the same writer in July 1901. ‘Old Ebor’ wrote that he was pleased that Yorkshire was considering providing assistance to Emmett, adding: These are rather delicate matters to refer to publicly. Tom Emmett, I may say, however, has had a great deal more trouble to meet in recent years than falls to the lot of the average man, and he is now in need of assistance. The Yorkshire Committee yesterday decided to make a weekly grant of 10s for the time being, and to see if some assistance can be obtained from the Cricketers’ Friendly Society. At the time of the census at the end of March 1901, Emmett was staying with his sister in Cheshire, which may have been a passing visit or a sign that he was being looked after. Things then deteriorated and news about Emmett’s ill-health spread, with the newspapers advising that ‘serious reports are to hand of the mental condition of Tom Emmett’. His health apparently gave way at the same time as his wife also became ill and was admitted to the Leicester Borough Asylum. This was a devastating blow for Emmett, who was ‘greatly depressed’ as a result. Her death on 9 May 1903 The later years (1889-1904)