Controversies in 1866

4 incidents documented

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

Yorkshire and representative sides

1866-06-01

Tom Emmett of Halifax made his Yorkshire debut in 1866 and immediately announced himself as one of the most ferocious and entertaining left-arm pace bowlers in England. Combining genuine speed with an erratic brilliance — in an era before coaching had standardised line and length he bowled fast, sharp and wildly — Emmett was also one of Victorian cricket's most beloved characters, whose wit and personality made him as famous in dressing rooms as his bowling made him dangerous on the pitch.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s

⭐Mild

W.G. Grace's Maiden First-Class Hundred — 224 Not Out at the Oval, 1866

England vs Surrey

1866-07-31

Two weeks after his eighteenth birthday, W.G. Grace scored 224 not out for England against Surrey at the Oval — his maiden first-class century, his first double-hundred, and the innings that, in Harry Altham's phrase, made him 'thenceforward the biggest name in cricket'. On the second afternoon his captain V.E. Walker let him slip away to Crystal Palace to win the National Olympian Association 440 yards hurdles race; he then returned to bat on.

#wg-grace#double-hundred#1866

⭐Moderate

Tom Wills Coaches the Aboriginal XI — Boxing Day at the MCG, 1866

Aboriginal XI vs Melbourne Cricket Club

1866-12-26

Tom Wills, the Cambridge-educated Victorian who had drafted the original rules of Australian Rules football in 1859, captained an Aboriginal XI from the Edenhope district against the Melbourne Cricket Club at the MCG on Boxing Day 1866 in front of more than 10,000 spectators. The match — the first cricket fixture between an Aboriginal team and a leading white club — was the proving ground that led directly to the 1868 English tour.

#tom-wills#aboriginal-team#1866

⭐Mild

Death of Frederick Lillywhite — End of an Era for Cricket Publishing, 1866

n/a

1866-09-15

Frederick William Lillywhite, the cricket publisher who had founded the The Guide to Cricketers in 1849 and the encyclopaedic Scores and Biographies in 1862, died at Brighton on 15 September 1866 aged just 37. His death scattered the Lillywhite publishing operation among rival relatives, removed the only direct competitor to John Wisden's three-year-old Almanack, and turned Wisden from one cricket annual among many into the inheritor of the field.

#fred-lillywhite#lillywhite-guide#publishing