Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

51 Chapter Five Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883 ‘Captaincy of the Yorkshire Eleven was entrusted to Emmett in 1878, and he did honour to the position by some of the best cricket of the season...[he is] the most popular professional of the day. Tom Emmett is an institution of the cricket world.’ Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, 1884 In February 1878, Yorkshire County Cricket Club announced that Tom Emmett would take over as captain from Ephraim Lockwood, who had held the post for two seasons. One commentator claimed that ‘No fault has been found with Lockwood, but it is thought that his temperament is not altogether suitable for the head of the eleven.’ In reality, as West put it, Lockwood ‘was out of his depth’, and the Leeds Times wrote at the end of the 1877 season of a ‘sad falling off’ in performances. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph also noted that the defeats at the Scarborough Festival, in which Yorkshire did not reach three figures in any of the four innings, had added to the ‘lengthy list already registered to the discredit of Yorkshire cricketers.’ Although Emmett was considered by some to be a sound choice as the most senior player, it is clear from the club committee minutes that there was an element of compromise and ambiguity in the decision. The minutes for 7 February 1878 state simply, ‘Resolved that T.Emmett be made Captain in the absence of a Gentleman.’ His perceived inferior status was further reinforced in April, when the minutes noted that, ‘T.Emmett’s Complimentary Tickets be admitted to Ground and enclosure (but not proprietors’ enclosure)’. 40 Clearly there were limits to what a professional cricketer – even one so clearly respected as Emmett - was allowed to do, and where he was permitted to go. Quite what this expression ‘in the absence of a Gentleman’ meant has been the subject of some debate. In his history, Tony Woodhouse commented: That minute is not entirely clear in that it could have meant that if an amateur were picked in a forthcoming game then he would assume the captaincy; or it might have meant that Emmett had been appointed as there was no amateur (or gentleman) able or willing to take on the role of captaincy. 41 A close look at reports of several matches in 1878 and later seasons suggests it was more complicated than that because it is clear that some amateurs did play under Emmett’s captaincy. However, on certain occasions - the games against Middlesex at Lord’s, Gloucestershire at Cheltenham and against the MCC at Scarborough in 1878, as well as