Harding Isaac "Sailor" Young (5 February 1876 – 12 December 1964) was a professional

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

who played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

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. 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 ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

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. ''

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'', 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".''The Times'', 10 July 1899, Gentlemen v Players Sailor Young was picked for two

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

that season 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

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, 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 highest wicket-taker. Young's success in 1899 led to great expectations for him, but after an excellent performance for the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) against

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early in the year "Sailor" surprisingly fell off to such an extent that for Essex in county matches he took only forty-three wickets as against eighty-nine. After improving a little in 1901 and doing an impressive performance on a soft pitch against

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early in 1902 "Sailor" nevertheless fell off completely. By 1903 his wicket tally was down to just 52 and after that season he dropped out of regular cricket because of severe

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in his

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s. Sailor Young continued to play a few matches for Essex and as a member of the MCC ground staff right up to 1912, but could never undertake anything more than very short bowling spells. In 1910-11 he was a member of the MCC team that toured the West Indies. From 1921 to 1931, Young was a first-class umpire and he officiated in two Test matches in 1924 and 1926.

References

First-Class Bowling in Each Season
* Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1970 edition, page 1027. Young's death in 1964 went unreported until the 1970 edition of Wisden. 1876 births 1964 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Essex cricketers English Test cricket umpires Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers People from Leyton Cricketers from the London Borough of Waltham Forest Home Counties cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers {{England-cricket-bio-stub