Tom Emmett
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Tom Emmett England (Eng) |
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Batting style | Left-hand bat (LHB) | |
Bowling type | Round-arm left-arm fast | |
Tests | First-class | |
Matches | 7 | 426 |
Runs scored | 13 | 9,053 |
Batting average | 13.33 | 14.84 |
100s/50s | 0/0 | 1/24 |
Top score | 48 | 104 |
Balls bowled | 728 | 60,303 |
Wickets | 9 | 1,572 |
Bowling average | 31.55 | 13.55 |
5 wickets in innings | 1 | 122 |
10 wickets in match | 0 | 29 |
Best bowling | 7/68 | 9/23 |
Catches/stumpings | 9/0 | 276/0 |
Test debut: 15 March 1877 |
Thomas ("Tom") Emmett (born 3 September 1841 in Halifax, Yorkshire; died 30 June 1904, in Leicester) was one of the finest bowlers in English cricket in the late 1860s, the 1870s and the 1880s. Emmett was a popular professional, with a cheery nature, and an inexhaustible energy with which he played the game, making him a prime favourite wherever he went.
Emmett first joined Yorkshire aged nearly 25 as a professional fast left-arm bowler, with a near round-arm action, though in his later years he bowled slow-medium. Once discovered, however, he jumped almost immediately to the top of the tree, playing for England against Surrey & Sussex in Tom Lockyer's benefit match at the Oval in 1867, his second season. A still greater bowler, George Freeman, was getting to his best at the same time, and from 1867 to 1871 inclusive, they dominated the English bowling scene. After 1871 business took Freeman away from first-class cricket, but Emmett found another excellent colleague in Allen Hill, and in later years he shared Yorkshire's bowling with George Ulyett, Billy Bates, Ted Peate and Bobby Peel. As time went on his pace left him, and he became the clever, dodgy bowler-full of devices and untiring in effort.
Emmett toured Australia three times and North America once, and played in seven Test matches, including the first in 1877, and was the mainstay in bowling for Lord Harris's team in 1878/9. He captained Yorkshire between 1878 and 1882, but ended his connection with the eleven in 1888.
Emmett married Grace, who was three years his junior, and had four daughters, Clara, Frances, Evelyn and Edith, and two sons, Arthur, who went on to play for Leicestershire in 1902, and Albert.
[edit] References
- Cricinfo page on Tom Emmett. Much of the article has been adapted from the obituary in the 1905 Wisden, which is now out of copyright
- CricketArchive page on Tom Emmett
- A Brief profile of Thomas Emmett by Don Ambrose