Yorkshire debut In 1920,
Yorkshire needed to strengthen its bowling attack. Of the team's previously successful bowlers,
Major Booth had been killed in the war,
Alonzo Drake had died soon afterwards from illness, and
George Hirst was past his best. Although
Wilfred Rhodes was able to ease the shortfall by resuming his career as a frontline
spin bowler, Yorkshire needed new bowlers, particularly
pacemen. Macaulay had been spotted playing club cricket by Sir
Stanley Christopherson, a former
Kent player. This was good enough to earn a first-class debut on 15 May 1920 against
Derbyshire in the
County Championship, although he only took one wicket. In ten first-class matches, he had taken 24 wickets at an
average of 24.35, and managed a top score of just 15 with the bat.
Wisden said he "had neither the pace nor the stamina required", With the bat, he scored 457 runs at an average of 22.59, surprising commentators with his ability. His overall success in the season meant that his place in the team was secure. Macaulay finished second to Rhodes in the team's bowling averages. The first two matches of the season brought Macaulay figures of six for eight and five for 23 in a ten wicket win over
Northamptonshire and six for 12 out of an opposition total of 78 in an
innings win over
Glamorgan. While he took only one wicket in the second innings, his first three innings had given him 17 wickets for 43 runs. These performances earned his selection for the MCC tour to South Africa that winter, although there were concerns his fitness was insufficient. He took the wicket of
George Hearne with his first
ball. He was the fourth player to take a wicket with his maiden delivery in Test cricket. In total, he took two for 19 in the first innings. In the second innings, South Africa were comfortably placed with a score of 157 for one, but four wickets fell to Macaulay while 13 runs were scored. Macaulay ended the innings with five wickets for 64. He played in the remaining three Tests, finishing with 16 wickets at an average of 20.37. England won the series 2–1, but the
Wisden correspondent for the tour was not impressed by the English performances, noting that no really effective bowlers had emerged. With his health improved by the tour,
Wisden reported that Macaulay was in excellent form for the whole of the 1923 season. His best performance came in the first match of the season, when he took seven wickets for 13 against
Glamorgan as they were dismissed for 63. With the bat, Macaulay scored 463 runs at an average of 18.52. His batting declined as he scored 395 runs at an average of 11.96. In a match against Middlesex in 1924 at Sheffield, the hostility of the crowd provoked an MCC inquiry which found that Yorkshire bowler
Abe Waddington had incited the spectators. Further incidents followed against Surrey. The editor of
Wisden blamed Yorkshire's poor discipline on a small group of approximately four players. Without naming Macaulay as one of them, he noted that
Lord Hawke, the Yorkshire president, believed Macaulay should have been in the team to Australia, and that "it was entirely his own fault he was not chosen". It is also possible that during a match at this time, Macaulay openly criticised the captaincy and bowling of
Arthur Gilligan, the England captain. Since 1923, Macaulay had run a cricket
outfitters in Leeds and Wakefield with his Yorkshire team-mate
Herbert Sutcliffe, borrowing £250 from his mother to help establish the business. During the winter of 1924–25, the shop became a
limited company and Macaulay one of its directors. Macaulay received £900 from the outfitters upon his resignation. Exactly 200 of his wickets were taken for Yorkshire—only Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst had previously reached 200 wickets for Yorkshire, and only
Bob Appleyard has done so since, as of 2013. He then delivered a
spell of five wickets for eight runs in 33 balls to bowl out his opponents and finish with figures of seven for 67. He then left the field exhausted. The cricket historian Mick Pope describes the match as a "lasting testimony to [Macaulay's] belief that no cause was ever lost". Macaulay was again selected for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's, and took five wickets in the match. Macaulay bowled fewer overs and took fewer wickets at a higher bowling average; his 134 wickets, at an average of 17.78, placed him second in the Yorkshire averages. Selected for a Test trial, he failed to take a wicket.
Wisden described his performance as "lifeless", while cricket writer
Neville Cardus noted that he had "yet again ... fallen below his best away from the Yorkshire XI". He was not chosen for the Gentlemen v Players match, never representing the Players again. When Macaulay came into bat from number ten in the
batting order, England were 182 for eight wickets and facing defeat. He played an attacking innings of 76, hitting ten fours, in a partnership of 108 with
George Geary. This began an England recovery which helped the team to escape with a draw. Nevertheless, Macaulay did not play in the final two Tests of the series. The team displayed an unaccustomed weakness in bowling, particularly after the death of
Roy Kilner in 1928. The effectiveness of the main bowlers was reduced by age and injury; only Macaulay remained at something approaching his bowling peak. However, his performances worsened each year. His bowling figures in the 1927 season were similar to his achievements in 1926, showing only a slight decline, but his total of wickets fell each season until 1930. His wicket tally fell to 120 and his average climbed to 24.37. In these seasons, he was only selected for one representative match, a Test trial in 1928 in which he failed to take a wicket. At the same time, his batting faded. In 1927, Macaulay scored his highest run aggregate and passed fifty six times while hitting 678 runs at an average of 25.11. He improved his batting average in 1928, accumulating 517 runs at 25.85 with four more fifties. However, after 1928, he never averaged more than 16.26 with the bat and only scored two more fifties in his career, both in 1929. ==End of first-class career==