Lancashire player number 67 - Wadsworth, Ernest by Don Ambrose

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Player:

E Wadsworth

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Lancashire 1871-79
Born 30.9.1850 Manchester.
Died 7.1.1918 Bowden, Cheshire.

 

Just over 6ft and 13 stone in weight, he was a middle order right-hand batsman and a right-hand fast round-arm bowler, who usually fielded at long-leg or cover-point.

 

He was said to be a professional, but this probably entailed him taking money for playing in a mid-week fixture to make up for wages lost at work. He played for his Rusholme Club as an amateur, as he did for the Broughton Club.

 

His first match for Lancashire was at Old Trafford on 26th and 27th May 1871 against Derbyshire when he scored 2 and 8. His last match was also against Derbyshire at Old Trafford on 5th to 6th June 1879 when he failed to score in his only innings.

 

In August 1877 he played for Eighteen of Broughton against the United All England Eleven, scoring 7 and 10. The following year for Eighteen of Broughton against the United North of England he scored 12 and took three wickets - Tom Emmett, Allen Hill and W.Mycroft. In 1879 he again played in this fixture, making the top score of 31 in Broughton's first innings.

 

On 26th and 27th August 1864 A.Wadsworth (a brother?) opened the innings for the Gentlemen of Lancashire against the Gentlemen of Shropshire at Shrewsbury, scoring 0 and 12. He also played for the Broughton Club, Manchester.

 

In the 1881 Census he appears living at 75 Cecil Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, aged 30 an organ builder, with his wife Elizabeth, aged 26, and son Harold aged 2. There are two domestic servants.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Don Ambrose)