Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

14 member of the Illingworth club was friends with William Suthers, the captain of Todmorden, who invited him to play. However, his request for 7s 6d and railway fares was turned down as too much and he did not appear. 10 The following year, Emmett got his revenge on the Todmorden club, making 119 not out, having offered a ‘silent prayer that I might do well that day.’ He was reportedly the master of the bowling and played the finest innings of the season on the ground. A collection was taken and the Todmorden club presented him with a new bat, whilst Keighley gave Emmett a sovereign as ‘talent money’. 11 In February 1865, Sporting Life listed Emmett (of Illingworth near Halifax) as the professional at Keighley Old Club. Emmett’s memory appears to have been slightly inaccurate on the dates. He told ‘Old Ebor’ in the late 1890s that ‘One Saturday I met the Keighley team on the road and rode with them, and they asked me if I would like to take an engagement with them. I entered into negotiations in earnest, and said if they would find me something to do in winter I would engage myself to them. They did so. That would be in 1863. I stopped with Keighley as their recognised professional for three years. In 1866 I left them to play with local Twenty- Twos against All-England Elevens.’ 12 In fact, Emmett was professional at Keighley in the three seasons from 1865 to 1867. Towards the end of May 1865, Emmett appeared against Burnley in a game which started late due to the players wasting time. He was clearly known to the press in the town, the reporter referring to him as ‘the Keighley professional (our old Halifax opponent)’. Emmett made 24, described as ‘decidedly the best played innings’ of the game, and then took two wickets in his first over. With 30 minutes to play, Burnley were 83-7, needing 130. Unable to win, the home side tried to slow things down. Emmett focused his attention on the weaker batsman, bowling ‘rippers’ and ‘shooters’, and eventually dismissed the highest-scoring batsman, Richmond. The last man came in and defended for a few balls, before Emmett bowled him out just over two minutes from the close of play. The Keighley players threw their hats in the air as Burnley were all out for 99. Emmett ended with 5-32 and Waring 4-30. This performance meant that Emmett was starting to get a reputation as an effective fast bowler, who was difficult to score against, and soon after for Halifax Trinity against Lascelles Hall, he also showed he could make a contribution with the bat, making 25 out of 114. Back with Keighley against Burnley in the return match, he bowled 10 overs for five runs at one stage in the first innings, and 13 overs for 11 runs in the second innings, with eight maidens. The following year, 1866, Emmett was at Burnley on Whit Monday, arriving with the Keighley side by omnibus for what turned out to be a low scoring defeat in front of large and very vocal crowd. He was also in the Bradford side, firstly against Lascelles Hall, when he took seven wickets, and then in Burnley, where he took 13 wickets in the match (including dismissing one opponent with a ‘shooter’, and bowling in a ‘destructive’ manner). Despite this, he ended up again on the losing side. At the end of July, he played for Keighley against the United All-England Eleven, bowling with Luke Early days (1841-1866)