Lives in Cricket No 50 - Tom Emmett

85 ‘Owd Evergreen’ 1884-1888 performances were remarkable. At Huddersfield in May, Emmett and Peate bowled Sussex out for 46 in a drawn game, and at Sheffield in June, he delivered 56 overs in an innings to take 5-79 against Surrey (a game in which he reportedly disagreed with his dismissal caught at slip when batting). Against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge his contributions were 4-24 in 32.2 overs and 54-35-42-5. This huge feat of stamina was described by one paper as ‘a remarkable performance on dry ground’, whilst another enthused that his record for the week was 15 out of the 31 wickets that Yorkshire had taken. At Old Trafford in July, he returned figures of 32-22- 33-7 in a losing cause (‘Emmett…seems to be bowling this season almost as well as ever…a really splendid performance.’), and he bowled another 51 overs in an innings against Gloucestershire. In August, against Kent during the Canterbury Festival Week, Emmett took 6-62 in 59 overs. In the first innings, a large crowd of fashionable visitors saw Kent lose their last eight wickets for 32 runs in an hour and 40 minutes, as Emmett bowled ‘with simply marvellous success’ to return figures in the morning of 16-12-6-6. He then scored 48 out of a total of 172 and had second innings figures of 25-17-20-3. He bowled 66 overs (42 maidens) against Nottinghamshire at Sheffield in a drawn, rain- Emmett in a studio portrait. (Roger Mann)