Born on 24 May 1844 in Eastwood, William McIntyre was the brother of Michael (1839-88) and Martin (1847-85) who also appeared for Notts. William was a right-hand bat and a right-arm round-arm fast bowler who first appeared for Eastwood CC in 1866. He was engaged as a professional at Trent Bridge in 1867 for the Nottingham Commercial Club. A trial was given to him in the Colts match of 1868, but he did little to justify it. A few weeks later, however, he bowled in astonishing form for the XVIII of Nottingham Commercial v All England Eleven at Trent Bridge taking 9-26 in the first innings and another five wickets in the second innings.
William McIntyre made his First-Class debut for the All England Eleven in their rain ruined contest versus the United England Eleven at Dewsbury in May 1869. Two months later he made his First-Class debut for Notts against Kent at the Angel Ground in Tonbridge, taking three wickets in the match. In the return match with Kent at Trent Bridge – McIntyre’s second game for Notts – he demonstrated a batting ability, which unfortunately he never later attained - and his innings of 99 turned out to be his career-best. He added 165 for the ninth wicket with George Wootton (60no) which remained a Notts record for that wicket for 125 years until beaten when Jimmy Adams and Kevin Evans added 170 against Somerset at Taunton in 1994.
During 1870 McIntyre missed only one Notts county match and finished the year second in the County’s bowling averages (31 wickets @14.41). Kent again fell victim to McIntyre at Trent Bridge; this time it was their batting rather than bowling which suffered, for he took 13-72 in the match, including 8-36 in the second innings. 1871 was not profitable for him, his bowling completely fell away (7 wickets @40.28) and his only innings of note was 51 versus Yorkshire at Sheffield in August. This match turned out to be his last First-Class outing for Notts, as he transferred his allegiance to Lancashire in 1872. In 14 First-Class games for Notts, he scored 405 runs @21.31 and took 43 wickets @19.18.
Around 1870, McIntyre moved from Eastwood to Bolton in Lancashire, hence his qualification for that county. His debut for Lancashire was against Yorkshire at Old Trafford in May 1872 and his figures in the four first-class games he played for them in 1872 were remarkable: 5-45, 3-50, 5-44, 5-24, 5-12, 6-19, 5-15 and 7-23; 41 wickets @5.65.
Lancashire extended their fixture list in 1873, but McIntyre continued to impress taking 59 wickets @8.27 in seven matches. The most First-Class wickets he obtained in a single season for Lancashire was in 1876 when he took 89 @11.41. Between 1872 and 1879 he played in every First-Class Lancashire match, but in 1880 he lost his form and played his last county match for them against Gloucestershire in July of that year. In 72 First-Class appearances for Lancashire, he proved great value, taking 441 wickets @11.65. His most impressive performance was versus Derbyshire at Derby in 1877 when he took a career best 8-31 in an innings and 15-47 in the match. In total he played in 97 First-Class matches, scored 1,323 runs @10.41 and took 510 wickets @12.61.
His professional engagements were as follows: Nottingham Commercial (1867-69), Bolton (1870-77), Castleton (1878-82). Two matches were played for his benefit, namely AN Hornby’s XI v XVI of Bolton in September 1877 and Lancashire v Gloucestershire at Old Trafford in July 1881. He received the sum of £1,000 from the latter.
Whilst with Bolton, he played in a match against his former club, Nottingham Commercial, that included a 17-year old Arthur Shrewsbury. Reports of the game feature the bowling of McIntyre and another Nottinghamshire-born bowler Tom Burrows (who never played for Notts First XI) and the batting of the young Shrewsbury. The game was p-layed at the splendidly-named Back-o'th'-Bank ground, Bolton in May 1873.
Even though he scored just 27, Arthur was deemed to have got the better of 'Mac' (who nonethless took twelve wickets in a Bolton win) but a later report says 'whether all who witnessed the innings believed that Shrewsbury would come to be...the outstanding professional batsman of the Victorian era, is probably open to conjecture'.
William McIntyre died at Prestwich Asylum on 13 September 1882 aged 38 years; he had switched residence from Bolton to Castleton in Rochdale.
April 2024
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 123