Sailor Young

Who was Sailor Young?

Harding Isaac "Sailor" Young was a cricketer who played for Essex and England.

Young was a left-arm medium-pace bowler and a capable lower-order batsman. His bowling achieved considerable turn off the wicket, and was described in Wisden as having "a deceptive curl". Young's cricketing successes in minor matches led Essex to buy him out of the Royal Navy. He played a few games in 1898, but came to prominence early the following year, when he took eleven wickets for 74 runs against a powerful Australian touring side and gave Essex a surprising victory by 126 runs. The Times, describing his bowling in the second innings when he took seven for 32, said "Young's bowling could not be played", that he "came off the pitch at a great pace" and "turned six inches with his arm". He continued to bowl so well in a very dry summer of prolific run scoring that by July he was regarded by some as "the best hard wicket bowler at England's disposal".

Sailor Young was picked for two Test matches that season against the and took six wickets in each of them, finishing at the top of the England averages. However, as a result of him losing form somewhat after bowling the Players to victory at The Oval, Sailor Young was discarded for the last match of the series and never played Test cricket again. He still took 139 wickets for the year, making him the sixth highets wicket-taker.