Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

15 Early days (1841-1866) Greenwood and Ike Hodgson, who was coming to the end of what turned out to be his final gruelling summer of professional cricket. Bowling fast and accurately, Emmett took six wickets against a side that included Iddison, Atkinson, Thewlis and Freeman from the current Yorkshire XI. Such performances made Emmett the rising star of the Keighley club, and with his reputation now growing, he made his Yorkshire county debut at the age of 24 on 2 August 1866, against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. The circumstances were slightly fortunate and many years later were described by one of those involved, Major Shepherd, who remembered: I had the pleasure...of sending one of our best, most distinguished, and most cheery bowlers, Tom Emmett, to his first match for Yorkshire, at Nottingham in 1866. In these days matches were allotted to Bradford and Leeds from Sheffield....I had engaged Tom Darnton….Darnton sent word at the last moment that he was unable to play, so I despatched Jimmy Hall, one the first professionals of the Bradford Club…to Keighley to secure Emmett, to stick to him, and never leave him until he landed him at Trent Bridge ground. Emmett remembered the game at Keighley against the United All-England Eleven slightly differently, noting, ‘Someone representing Yorkshire saw me, and asked me what I would take to play for the county. I said I would take the usual fee, £5. They said it was not the practice to give so much to beginners.’ Emmett reported that he had said that since it was in Nottingham it was impossible to play for less, and he got his way. He also remembered ‘marching proudly’ to the railway station for the train to Nottingham. He had finally made the grade. Keighley Cricket Club in the mid-1860s. Emmett is seated on the right at the front (William Roberts)