Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

78 Yorkshire Captain 1878-1883 Back in the ranks – although referred to occasionally as vice-captain – Emmett featured a little more with both bat and ball in the summer of 1883. Against Derbyshire, he made 49 before being run out, and delivered 26 overs in a drawn game. Against Surrey, he made 50 at number nine, with six 4s in a performance which almost helped pull off a victory at The Oval. In the following match, Hawke made good use of him and he returned figures of 4-32 and 4-39 as Yorkshire won by 8 wickets against Gloucestershire. In August, Emmett captained a Lancashire and Yorkshire side against an England eleven in a benefit match for William Mycroft, and he then took 4-34 against Kent as Yorkshire won by an innings. He was also a contributor to a very effective tail-end performance against Sussex, which resulted in another innings win, the final five wickets more than doubling the score. Despite these contributions, for the first time some observers wondered how long Emmett could survive. One paper looked back on the 1883 season and considered that Emmett had ‘fallen away perceptibly’. Perhaps with his summer itinerary in mind, at the end of the 1883 season, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph also reflected that ‘the wear and tear of a cricketer’s life must tell sooner or later’, but considered that ‘there is life in the old dog yet, and he will last for another year or two, being still very useful with the ball.’ It added that, with the exception of Alfred Shaw, Emmett had accomplished more bowling feats than anyone else of the present day. The paper recorded all his innings, summarising that he had appeared in 33 matches that summer, and scored 549 runs at just over 11, and taken 86 wickets at 11. And, when the Yorkshire Post ran a poll of cricket followers in the summer of 1883, in an attempt to identify new blood, Emmett still came out seventh with 39 votes from 50 respondents. For all the continuing adulation, Emmett may himself have been increasingly conscious that his life as a professional player could not go on forever, and, keen to cash in on his fame, he did what many professionals before and after him did, and sold sports equipment. In 1882, adverts had appeared stating that ‘Tom Emmett (Yorkshire Eleven) 26A North Street, Keighley, can supply clubs with everything connected with football as cheap and good as any in the trade.’ He also set himself up as a tobacconist. In June 1883, he advertised as ‘Captain Yorkshire Eleven’ and as ‘Cricket and Lawn Tennis Outfitter’ at the same address, promising a ‘Large Stock of Well-Seasoned Bats.’ In 1885, he advertised as a ‘Cricket and Lawn Tennis Outfitter’, but from 18 Sherborne Road, Laisteridge Lane, Bradford, ‘five minutes walk from Park Avenue.’ No doubt, his reputation helped him sell cricket equipment by drawing in men keen to discuss the game with an acknowledged master. Yet, if Emmett was preparing for life after a county playing career, this was to prove premature, and the cricket world was to discover that the ‘veteran’ still had some years left in him.