Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

17 Chapter Three A man in demand (1867-1871) The 1867 season saw Emmett’s breakthrough. He was again professional at Keighley, a club which was clearly proud of its role in his development. In July, its Honorary Secretary emphasised to the Bradford Observer its strong connections with him. After the paper had stated that Emmett was engaged to play for Keighley every Saturday, he wrote to correct the impression that he was a Bradford man. He noted: considering that the Keighley Cricket Club have always obliged the Bradford Club by allowing Emmott [sic] to help them out of the mire they ought to be the last to promulgate such statement and by that means detract from any credit that may be due to the Keighley Club in having brought out so promising a player. For your information, I beg to say that this is Emmott’s [sic] third season as a professional, each of which he has been engaged by the Keighley Club twenty weeks each season, from Monday morning to Saturday night and not as your report says, for Saturday only; and if any one is disposed to dispute it, by coming up to Keighley any day in the week he will be ready and willing to bowl for them without any emolument other than he receives from the Keighley Club. In response, the Bradford newspaper commented testily that Emmett had been well known as very promising bowler ‘many years’ before his first engagement with Keighley. Despite these disagreements, Emmett began to play regularly in games involving the touring sides – All-England and the United All-England Eleven – often as a ‘given man’, rather than playing for his local side, a role he fulfilled on over 30 occasions between 1865 and 1874, particularly up to 1869. At the same time, he secured himself a permanent place in the county side. In June 1867, Emmett played for Yorkshire against Surrey at The Oval and was part of a significant rear-guard action, making 38 at number 10. Together, the tail-enders helped Yorkshire progress from 98-6 to 265 all out. Freeman and Greenwood then bowled Surrey out twice for 92 and 62, and Emmett’s bowling was not needed, as Yorkshire won by an innings and 111 runs. His experience on this occasion with the bat had an impact and he later recalled that until then ‘I had never thought much of batting...I saw, however, that run-getting was useful, so paid more attention to batting afterwards.’ 13 After the game, Emmett returned north, where a couple of days later he was engaged by Morley and District against the United All-England Eleven, and took the wickets of Iddison, Pryor and Atkinson in a drawn game.