Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

68 an error in the grammatical construction of a sentence in the original text of Homer, and the hero of the Ripon match [Emmett, who made 69 there during the week] is evidently joining his comrade-in-arms in lamenting the ignorance of the old writer. Athletic News , slightly incredulous as to why the pictures had been taken at all, suggested (ironically it is assumed) that perhaps Emmett wanted to be a bishop after he had finished cricket, and thus needed photographic evidence he had been to college. At the end of June 1881, Emmett captained the Players against the Gentlemen at The Oval, where his side lost a close match by two wickets. He scored 75 against Lancashire and 76 against Derbyshire, before being among the Yorkshire side that played Lascelles Hall in August for Allen Hill’s benefit. Hill had been injured in a match in July, and the county committee had given him £2 a week whilst he was unable to work, but the Yorkshire team also took the first opportunity to play a game for his benefit. George Freeman came out of retirement after a decade, and took five wickets in the first innings and scored 60 in two hours at the crease, reminding Yorkshire cricket followers what they had been missing. At The Oval against Surrey, Emmett was in fine all-round form, top scoring with 61 and then bowling Surrey out for 66, taking 8-22. He was ‘tremendously cheered on his return to the dressing-room for his magnificent bowling’, having turned a match which seemed destined for a draw into a Yorkshire win. The Leeds Times reported ‘there were people on The Oval who wanted to shoulder the Yorkshire captain and carry him in triumph to the pavilion, but Emmett escaped from their intended kindnesses, running as fast as his legs could carry him to the enclosure immediately after the last wicket had been secured.’ According to another version of events, Emmett resisted, crying out ‘Nay, for goodness sake chaps, don’t shoulder me; I have my pockets full of brass, and if you lift me up it will all roll out!’. Emmett himself believed this was his best ever bowling performance. He recalled that he tried Peate, Ulyett and Bates without success and they encouraged him to bowl himself. And he noted, he had in fact nothing in his pockets! The Sheffield press also could not believe Emmett’s performance, asking ‘What shall be done to honour Tom Emmett? What is there that he cannot achieve in the way of cricket?...No wonder that the Surrey folk crowded round the Yorkshire captain cheering him as such a captain deserves cheering and struggling for the honour of carrying him to the dressing- room.’ At one point he took five wickets for one run. The following week against Derbyshire, he also took 6-19 and it was suggested that ‘There are few more keen and ardent cricketers than Tom, who veteran as he is, still works harder and with more zest than many a younger man.’ Emmett finished third in the Yorkshire batting averages that season, and topped the bowling averages, having had to bowl more than expected due to Hill’s injury. As a result, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph devoted half a full column to Emmett’s performances, which showed that in all, he had played 37 matches and scored 1,055 runs. It seemed he was back to his best and Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883