Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

63 Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883 on the other hand were committed to playing Surrey on 25-27 August, and then had two games during the Scarborough festival, organised by Lord Londesborough, the last of which was not due to end until 9 September. Daft was keen to include Emmett, Lockwood and Ulyett in the party and was hopeful that they would be allowed to miss the Surrey game. Daft explained the position in detail to Wostinholm, and arranged for Captain Holden, the Nottinghamshire secretary, to write to Lord Londesborough. Wostinholm promised to call a meeting of the county committee and provide an early reply. Eventually, the county club agreed on the basis that Lord Londesborough gave his consent for the Yorkshire players to miss the Scarborough festival games. As it happened, two days of the Surrey v Yorkshire game were rained off. The side that Daft put together for the tour was made up of professionals from Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, the latter being Lockwood, Ulyett, Bates, Pinder, and Emmett. Despite the logistical difficulties and suggestions in the spring that arrangements had broken down, on 28 August 1879, the party boarded the mail steamer S.S.Sardinian in Liverpool for the crossing to Canada, along with emigrants (mostly labourers and young men going out as clerks), businessmen, tourists and orphans. At a dinner before departure it was made clear that the players would be treated the same as the promoters, Daft and Ford, which went down well, and on the ship the news that there was a team of cricketers aboard created great interest. A very stormy passage through the Irish Channel would not have been to Emmett’s taste, and the weather remained bad in the Atlantic, with passengers hanging on to rails to avoid being thrown around their cabins. Only after several days did the seas calm, and by then Emmett was apparently ‘thoroughly himself again’, and was ‘soon devoted Daft’s team to North America 1879. (Roger Mann)