Page 3
| This match, remembered and referred to
elsewhere, certainly left its mark of notoriety, and was recalled in Wm.
Smith's reminiscences. So it is worth taking the independent view of the
Bolton Chronicle report that day:
July 15th 1871. Eagley v. Bradshaw "This annual match between these clubs was played on the ground of the Eagley Club on Saturday and resulted in a draw in favour of Bradshaw. Bradshaw won the toss and elected to go in against the bowling of Bottoms and Woodhouse which was good, but were not fortunate in making a large score. Their total only reached 36, of which T. Tootill 8 was their largest contribution. After the usual interval Eagley was represented by Wharmby and Knowles against the bowling of Smith (round arm) and Holt (slows). The bowling of the latter proved too much for the Eagley men, five wickets falling for 5 runs and eight for 18. At the fall of the eighth wicket the batter refused to submit to the decision of the umpire, which led to a dispute, and the result was The Eagley Club drew the stumps rather than submit to the decision. The Eagley Brass Band was in attendance during the match, and played a selection of music".
Meanwhile, in the reverse fixture at Bradshaw, Eagley 2nd, oblivious of the rumpus on their own ground, were losing by 36 runs to 24. |
John Holt Jnr, the main participant in the
drama, recalling the match shortly before his death in 1917 (in the same
series of articles to which William Smith had contributed), remembers
being subjected to scornful comments from the girls of Eagley Threadmills,
who decried Bradshaw's chances against their own first-class side. He
states he practiced his slow breaks the whole week prior to the game. His
satisfaction in gaining a moral victory over "the Eagley swells", watched
he thought by 1500/2000 spectators, comes through strongly in his Buff
interview.
He also recollected walking to Horwich to play the Bradshaw fixture there. These two seasons of 1870 and 1871 were, it would seem, the "palmy days", after which the Club, now experiencing ground difficulties, slipped into decline. Only two fixtures are to be found for 1872, a convincing victory over Haulgh on the Castle Hill ground, and a narrow defeat by four runs away at Harwood. No matches were reported in any of the Bolton papers of 1873, and an entry in the diary of Samuel Scowcroft of Longsight for 5th February 1873, more or less confirms this state of affairs by stating "A meeting held in the pavilion - it was decided to break up Bradshaw Cricket Club". The pavilion referred to was situated between Bridge House and Bradshaw Brook, containing seating for 1600, and was specially built for the consecration of the then new, present, Bradshaw Church on November 9th 1872, afterwards being used for Day and Sunday School purposes, until taken down when the "new" school opened in 1880. On September 27th of 1873 the same diary has a single line entry - "Bradshaw Cricket Club Athletic Sports", and on December 20th - "Cricketers entertainment in Pavilion Bridge End. The second part taken up by a company of local Christy Minstrels". The cast in this extravaganza included Bones (Mark Millington), Sambo (Robert Allen), Pompey (William Bridge), Ginger (Edwin Scowcroft), Clem (Inv. Jackson) and Johnson (Willian S. Holt), all cricketing surnames of the day, and more than likely the same performers on stage as on the cricket ground. The success of this show can be measured by a further diary entry from January 29th 1874 - "The Bradshaw Christy Minstrels gave entertainment at St. Ann's School, Turton. Programme as December 20th 1873, for which they received £2.10.0d." Finally, April 25th 1874 - "The Bradshaw Christy Minstrels entertainment in the Pavilion. There was a very good attendance. Joe Booth presided at the piano". |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||