1882 to 1885
Hawke's third first-class appearance was his debut for Cambridge University on 12 and 13 June 1882 when he played against Lancashire at Old Trafford. He made 18 first-class appearances in 1882, scoring 570 runs at 18.38 with two half-centuries and a top score of 66. He played for Cambridge four times in June, including the University Match against Oxford University at Lord's and gained the first of his three blues. From July to September, he played in 13 games for Yorkshire.
When Hawke rejoined Yorkshire in July 1882, the team's professional captain Tom Emmett offered to stand down but Hawke refused and insisted on learning the job by playing under Emmett. James Coldham quoted Hawke as saying to Emmett that he wanted to "pick up a few wrinkles first". Hawke and Emmett got along very well, despite their social differences, and Hawke played to the end of August under Emmett's leadership, often being the only amateur in the team. There had been few amateur cricketers in the Yorkshire team before Hawke and there had been complaints from the cricket establishment that the Yorkshire Committee preferred to play professionals. This had much to do with the clash between the county club and Carter's Yorkshire Gentlemen but there was in fact a shortage of suitably talented amateurs too. Hawke assumed the captaincy for the two Scarborough Festival matches against MCC and I Zingari. At the end of the 1882 season, though he had just turned 22, Hawke was appointed Yorkshire club captain, the first amateur to hold the position. He remained in charge for 28 seasons until 1910, during which time the team won eight County Championships, still a record for one captain in county cricket.
In a tribute to Hawke, the editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack related that Hawke's "strength of the character was tested" when, as a young man on leaving Cambridge, he undertook the responsibility of captaining the Yorkshire side, composed at that time of "elements that were not entirely harmonious". Owing to Hawke's "tact, judgment and integrity", he moulded the Eleven into "the best, and probably the most united county cricket team in England". Derek Birley commented on the Yorkshire team to 1883 as "gifted but scarcely house-trained professionals" who were often described as "ten drunks and a parson". The odd man out was Louis Hall, a Nonconformist lay preacher who had joined Yorkshire in 1873 as an opening batsman and was reputedly the first teetotaller ever to play for them. Their best players included Emmett, Ephraim Lockwood, George Ulyett, Ted Peate, Billy Bates and Allen Hill, while Bobby Peel made his first-class debut for Yorkshire in July 1882. Birley added that their performances and "rough-hewn image" had become an embarrassment to the gentlemanly wing of the club and the decision was taken to appoint a captain who would "instill discipline and sobriety into this wayward team".
Hawke's task was not only to eradicate the drink problem but also, in Birley's view, "to unite the club's geographical and social factions" and try to produce a winning team. Yorkshire had evolved from the old Sheffield Cricket Club and it had been the case since its foundation in 1863 that all fourteen members of the County Committee were elected by Sheffield districts; and all fourteen of these committee men plus the secretary Joseph Wostinholm were loyal to the president and treasurer, Michael Ellison. As a result, to the chagrin and vociferous opposition of the rest of the county, Ellison and Sheffield effectively controlled Yorkshire cricket. Edmund Carter was one of Ellison's main critics and opponents. At the end of the 1882 season, in addition to appointing Hawke as captain, the committee agreed to reorganise itself for the first time since the club's foundation. Admitting that it should represent the views of Yorkshire as a whole, the committee enlarged itself from 14 to 21 by inviting seven new members: one each from Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds and York in addition to the existing 14 from Sheffield. So, although the other districts now had a voice, the Sheffield contingent retained complete control. However, York's representative was Edmund Carter and, although there was now reduced friction in Yorkshire's affairs, the issue of representation had only been deferred.
Hawke at this time had minimal influence and Coldham wrote that he cannot be seen as anything more than an "instrument of change", though his appointment did represent a "watershed" in the club's history. Whatever the extent of Hawke's involvement in the 1882 machinations, ten years would pass before Yorkshire was fully reorganised and, coincidentally, it was in 1893 that Hawke's team won Yorkshire's first official County Championship. Birley wrote that Yorkshire, "restored to feudalism", was now "ready to play the establishment game".
Hawke enjoyed a personal success in the second match of the 1883 season when he scored his maiden first-class century with 141 for Cambridge against C I Thornton's XI at Fenner's. He shared a third wicket partnership of 160 with Cambridge captain Charles Studd against a bowling attack that included Test players Billy Barnes, Ted Peate and George Ulyett. The match was drawn due to interruptions by rain after Thornton's XI scored 175 and 229; Cambridge replied with 317 and 44–3.
Hawke's appointment as Yorkshire captain brought early success as the team enjoyed a good season in 1883 with a record of 9 wins and 5 draws in 16 inter-county matches. In 1884, Yorkshire won half their inter-county matches, 8 out of 16, but four defeats left them well adrift of Nottinghamshire in the unofficial championship standings. In his 1924 memoirs, Recollections and Reminiscences, Hawke described the 1884 season as "my least successful" and explained that militia duties had interfered with his cricket at Cambridge, for whom he made only two appearances with modest scores in both. With Hawke mostly absent, Louis Hall took over the captaincy.
Hawke was more absent in 1885 when, with Hall again leading the team, Yorkshire won seven of their 16 inter-county matches and had the second best record after Nottinghamshire, whom they defeated by an innings and 28 runs, the only match that Nottinghamshire lost.
From his first match as Yorkshire captain in August 1882, Hawke played in only nineteen out of 67 first team games between then and September 1885. The captaincy, for all intents and purposes, had gone back to the professionals with first Emmett and then Hall having taken over. Hall led the team in 37 matches through 1884 and 1885.
Hawke made eight appearances for Cambridge in 1885 with a best score of 73 against MCC and he played his last match for them in June against Oxford.
