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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Thomas Emmett | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Halifax, Yorkshire, England | 3 September 1841|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 29 June 1904 62) Leicester, England | (aged|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Left-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Left arm fast (roundarm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relations | Arthur Emmett (son) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut(cap 3) | 15 March 1877 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 14 March 1882 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1866–1888 | Yorkshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricketArchive,26 December 2009 |
Thomas Emmett (3 September 1841 –29 June 1904) [1] was an English cricket bowler in the late 1860s,the 1870s and the early 1880s.
Born in Halifax,West Riding of Yorkshire,Emmett first joined Yorkshire when almost 25 as a professional fast left-arm bowler with a near roundarm action,though in his later years he took to bowling slow-medium. Once discovered,however,Emmett climbed almost immediately to the top of the cricketing tree,playing for England against Surrey &Sussex in Tom Lockyer's benefit match at the Oval in 1867,his second season. An even greater bowler,George Freeman,was approaching his best at the same time,and,from 1867 to the end of 1871,they dominated the English bowling scene. After 1871,however,business commitments took Freeman away from first-class cricket,but Emmett stayed on and found another able colleague in the excellent Allen Hill. In later years,Emmett shared the Yorkshire bowling duties with George Ulyett,Billy Bates,Ted Peate and Bobby Peel. He called his most famous delivery the "sostenuter":after pitching on leg the ball would break back a long way to take the off-stump. As time went on,Emmett's pace deserted him.
Emmett captained Yorkshire for five seasons between 1878 and 1882,ending his connection with the eleven in 1888. He was the last professional to captain Yorkshire until Vic Wilson was appointed in 1960.
Emmett toured Australia three times and North America once. He played seven Test matches,including the first-ever in 1877,and was also the bowling mainstay for Lord Harris's team in 1878/9. According to J. L. Carr in his Dictionary of Extra-Ordinary Cricketers,on one occasion he "politely asked of an Australian fielder who had crept in close,if he was wed. He explained that,although he had no compunction about killing him,the death of a husband and father would vex his peace of mind."
In the first ever Test England lost the toss and were made to field in the 1st Innings. James Lillywhite,the England Captain led his team onto the Melbourne pitch,followed by the rest of the team including Tom Emmett. Tom Emmett was 35 years 193 days old,77 days older than Harry Jupp,England No:1. Tom Emmett was later passed,in age,by England No:11,James Southerton and Australia No:2 Nat Thomson as the Australian opening pair came out to bat.
Emmett married a woman named Grace,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). He died in Leicester on 29 June 1904 (not 30 June,as is widely reported). [1]
Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler,he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37.
Norman Walter Dransfield Yardley was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University,Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England,as a right-handed batsman and occasional bowler. An amateur,he captained Yorkshire from 1948 to 1955 and England on fourteen occasions between 1947 and 1950,winning four Tests,losing seven and drawing three. Yardley was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1948,and in his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack he was described as Yorkshire's finest amateur since Stanley Jackson.
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Frederick Robert Spofforth,also known as "The Demon Bowler",was an Australian cricket team pace bowler of the nineteenth century. He was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets,and the first to take a Test hat-trick,in 1879. He played in Test matches for Australia between 1877 and 1887,and then settled in England where he played for Derbyshire. In 2009,he was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
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