Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

57 in the two points that we are supposed to be strong in —viz., batting and fielding—that we failed, and, although I don’t think that we are scarcely strong enough to beat the Australian team, yet if we had not played so far away from our true form, we should have made a good fight.’ There was some local criticismof the Melbourne Cricket Club for organising a poor spectacle, and so weak was the performance that there was some speculation about foul play. Predictably, it was the professionals who came under suspicion. One reporter stated, ‘Some of the critical spectators.... were asking one another during a certain stage of the game whether it was possible that Emmett and Ulyett, the two professional players in the English Eleven could be “got at” by the betting men of Melbourne.’ This was apparently because of the ‘very common occurrence of some misses in the field, and to the fact that at some intervals in the play Emmett and Ulyett were mixing with the crowd under the grand-stand, and talking with Jim Mace and others of the sporting brotherhood.’ The paper dismissed the idea, however, arguing that it was simply that Australia were better than the English side. Others were even more sceptical about the idea, arguing, ‘It is hardly likely that Ulyett and Emmett, who obtain their living by cricket, would be guilty of such conduct, and it is a great pity that such an assertion should be placed on the shoulders of these gentlemen, who have, since their arrival in the colonies, done their best for the country they represent.’ Shortly afterwards, the side left behind the disappointment and controversy, and sailed to Tasmania, playing at Hobart and Launceston. Emmett took 9-33 and 6-51 in the first match, and 12-20 in the second. Although the second match ended as a draw, ‘Emmett rattled down the wickets so quickly that at one time there seemed almost a chance [of victory].’ Whilst in Hobart, Emmett and Ulyett were engaged to bowl for some local cricketers, a harmless enough distraction, although unfortunately it ended with one player being hit in the face by a ball from Ulyett. In his letter home, Emmett emphasised how much he had enjoyed the climate in Tasmania, writing ‘You don’t experience the hot winds nor the dust storms or sand storms there as you do in Victoria or New South Wales, nor do they have the quantity of rain that they have in New Zealand.’ Emmett was impressed by what he saw on his travels, remarking that ‘As we were coming from Hobart Town to Launceston, a gentleman got into the train with a basketful of cherries such as I never saw before for size, and the flavour as good as any I have tasted.’ In the middle of January 1879, the side returned to Melbourne, from where some went to Sydney by sea, and Emmett and others travelled by train. The party were met at the station by the President of the New South Wales Association, and the professionals and the amateurs were taken to their separate hotels. The team took on New South Wales in a first- class game, losing by five wickets. There was little interest in the contest, in part because of critical articles in the press about the weaknesses of Harris’s side. In the second game with the same side, however, fine top order batting from Hornby, Lucas, Ulyett and Harris put the visitors in a Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883