Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

6 Yet Emmett was more than just a genial personality. He was one of the most significant figures in English cricket in the 19 th century, a man who linked the period of the early days of commercial cricket to the time when Test and county cricket were well-established in the national sporting calendar, and most of the elements of the modern game were in place. In the 1860s, he once took 16 first-class wickets in an afternoon, a remarkable feat regardless of the weakness of the opposition. In the 1870s, only one other player scored 4,000 runs and also took 400 wickets in English first-class cricket – and that was W.G.Grace. In the 1880s, he had the most successful season of his career as a bowler at the age of nearly 45. For Yorkshire County Cricket Club, he provided stability, quality and backbone to a county side which experienced highs and lows during the thirty year period from the formation of the club in 1863 to the turning point of 1893, when it was reformed and a stream of great players came to the fore. Emmett also had a wider role in popularising the game. For a time, he was also one of the most important and effective of the ‘given men’, those professionals who played a vital part in helping local sides take on the travelling elevens such as the All-England and United All-England, ensuring that this form of cricket, which popularised the game enormously in the north of England, could be maintained as a worthwhile and financially viable spectacle. To A.A.Thomson, it was impossible to exaggerate the value of these touring sides, but without men like Ike Hodgson, William Slinn, Luke Greenwood, and Tom Emmett also being willing and able to travel (often alone) up and down the country, and then perform virtually unaided for the district team against some of the best players of the day, it is highly likely that these contests would have been too one-sided to have had any appeal, and cricket’s development would have been slower and possibly quite different. 1 Such cricket was part of a ‘consumer revolution’ that occurred in 19 th century Britain. As one historian has put it, commercial entertainment became accessible to the masses in this period. Thus: Theatre, opera, music-making; pleasure gardens and fairs; newspapers, magazines, books; holidays and tourism, seaside outings and excursion travel; spectator sports such as racing and football...became available to many, who could increasingly afford to pay for their entertainment. No longer was the pub or the annual or monthly fair the prime venue for leisure. The age of mass entertainment had arrived, and the unruly crowd – avidly, enthusiastically – had become eager customers. 2 Tom Emmett was a significant figure in this emerging world. He made people want to part with their money to see him play cricket, and he exploited the opportunities presented to a working man by the new age of mass entertainment, perhaps as much as any contemporary did. He worked and practised hard, travelling long distances at home and abroad to play – probably more than 200,000 miles throughout his professional career. He put up with living away from his family for long periods. In return, he was lauded by the press, saw the world, and received a larger Legend and legacy