Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

60 Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883 be ‘bullied this way’. He added (inaccurately it seems) that this and a 50-1 wager at Sheffield were the only speculations he ever made on a cricket match. The tourists left New South Wales for Victoria, where Emmett scored 41 out of 325 in a timeless match. He also bowled 63 overs for 5-93 and 75 overs for 4-53 (including 46 maidens) but in a losing cause as Victoria won by two wickets. The bowling was hard to get away at times, ‘half of Emmett’s so far to the off side of the wicket that neither batsmen would strike at them’. They then played against Bendigo, where Emmett took 7-45 and 8-59 against the local Twenty-Two. At Ballarat, he added a further 11- 54 and 8-58, before returning to Melbourne for a first game with Victoria. Here he continued in good form with the ball, taking 6-41 and 5-68 in a six wicket win. At the close of play, Lord and Lady Harris presented Ulyett and Emmett with engraved gold lockets ‘in memory of the event to which they so greatly contributed.’ The side was also entertained at the Victoria Club on the Saturday evening and the tour drew to an end, still with a hint of acrimony as Boyle and a number of Victorian players did not attend, reportedly due to comments made by A.N.Hornby. Harris acknowledged the important role played by Emmett and Ulyett (‘two such good fellows’) and there was prolonged cheering, which the men bowed to acknowledge. In the course of the tour, the side played 13 matches, won six, lost three and drew four. The ‘indefatigable’ Emmett was described as having ‘an easy monopoly of the honours’ for bowling. In all matches, he had an average of 8.4 and in the eleven-a-side games, 12.3. Talking about the batting, The Australasian commented that ‘there was a great falling off on the part of some of our cracks, who were led into temptation by the wily Emmett, and found Royle at cover-point was not the man to give them a second chance.’ The party split after the Victoria game, with the largest group of the amateurs going to New Zealand for two weeks before returning home via the San Francisco mail boat. Others stayed in Australia until the end of March. Less concerned with the professionals, The Australasian simply added ‘Emmett and Ulyett are also here, and will probably leave by the next mail.’ In fact, Emmett and Ulyett departed on 24 March and, despite the troubles, it was widely seen as a successful and enjoyable tour. They arrived in Sheffield on Saturday 3 May 1879, having travelled back ‘by the Overland route’. Ulyett was interviewed and expressed his pleasure at the way in which he and Emmett had been treated by the rest of the party. There had not been as much fun during the outward voyage as there had been on his last journey, he said, but there had still been cricket and rat- hunting on board, as well as evenings spent playing whist. Many years later, Lord Harris told a story of Emmett’s journey back, when he recalled that: After the tour he (Harris) and Mr. Mackinnon returned home by way of San Francisco and the latter entrusted to the care of Tom Emmett, the Yorkshire bowler, a deck chair which he had become attached to.