William Mycroft with 58 and took five wickets in an innings six times. In the following years Mycroft played for both Derbyshire and MCC on a regular but less frequent basis. In the 1885 season, Mycroft played his penultimate game in a match between MCC and Derbyshire at Lords. His brother Thomas, who also played for both teams, was also playing one of his last games and on this occasion Thomas took a stint of bowling instead of wicket-keeping. The main bowlers on the opposing sides were Sherwin and Shacklock. The first Sherlock Holmes story was published two years later and there
William Mycroft and took five wickets in an innings eight times, but did even more deadly work for the MCC with 31 wickets at the extraordinary average of 7.29, and also was deadly in one innings for England against Kent and a powerful Gloucestershire team with W.G. Grace in his prime. In 1878, Mycroft played much less outside county cricket, taking only fifteen wickets, but took a career best 101 for Derbyshire. In the 1879 season he was down to 48 wickets for the club which was still the best total. He topped the wicket tally for Derbyshire in the 1880 season