Tom Emmett — Yorkshire's Wild Left-Armer Arrives, 1866

Yorkshire in the mid-1860s had good batting — Lockwood, Rowbotham, Anderson — but needed fast bowling to match the Nottinghamshire and Surrey attacks. Emmett provided it.

Emmett was born at Halifax in 1841 and worked as a professional in the Bradford area before being engaged by Yorkshire. His debut in 1866 was immediate notice that Yorkshire had found something unusual: a left-arm pace bowler of the highest quality, quick enough to trouble the best batsmen in England and accurate enough on good days to be unplayable. Left-arm pace was rare in this era — most professional bowlers were right-arm — and the angle of delivery from over or round the wicket gave Emmett an additional advantage. He was also dangerous with the bat in the lower order and a magnificent fielder. His personality was legendary: stories of his wit accumulated throughout a career that lasted until 1888. He once, after bowling a famous batsman for nought, told him, 'I know you'll be wanting a photograph — it's not every day you get clean-bowled by me.' His partnership with Allen Hill and later with George Freeman made Yorkshire's attack formidable.

“Emmett was the funniest man in cricket and also one of the most dangerous bowlers in it — a combination that kept you on your toes both on and off the field.”

Emmett coached at Rugby School after retiring and was one of W.G. Grace's most famous bowling victims — and friends. He died in 1904.