Chapter Three The Best v The Best That showpiece had its origins in the formation of the great travelling elevens which did so much to promote and develop the game. William Clarke’s slow under-arm bowling brought him thousands of wickets but ambition sought wider horizons. Clarke, who laid out the Trent Bridge ground in Nottingham, created the All-England Eleven, which provided jobs for the leading professionals of the day. They journeyed the length and breadth of the country for matches against odds, popularising cricket in areas where it had seldom been seen before. Always, though, Clarke had his one good eye on the balance sheet and his autocracy led to a schism in 1852. Under the leadership of John Wisden and Jemmy Dean, a rival combination, the United All-England Eleven, was formed. Relations between the two organisations were strained but things changed after Clarke’s death in 1856. Another Nottinghamshire man, George Parr, who throughout the 1850s was the finest batsman in the country, took over Clarke’s old role. Suggestions that the two elevens should meet had met with short shrift from Clarke but Parr was more receptive. He was, after all, Wisden’s partner in the management of a ground at Leamington. Friends of Jemmy Dean were keen to arrange a benefit for him involving a fixture between the two teams. The idea was put to Parr who accepted it with one stipulation. This was that the elevens should first play a match for the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society at Lord’s. The fund had three objectives. It aimed to provide members with relief if, due to old age, illness, accident or any other infirmity, they were incapable of following their profession. It undertook to make temporary assistance available to a member’s widow and children if they were left destitute and it would also ensure a member had a decent burial. Members contributed an annual subscription of one guinea and had to be fully paid-up for five years to qualify for benefit. No new members over the age of 45 were allowed. The Society’s treasurer, James Dark, was also the proprietor of Lord’s – he sold the lease to MCC in 1864 - and he agreed to place the ground at the disposal of the two elevens. So the eagerly awaited clash between the AEE and the UAEE – the Match of the Century – could scarcely have had a better cause, although Old Clarke was probably revolving in his grave. The AEE team was George Parr (captain), Alf Diver, Andrew Crossland, Heathfield Harman Stephenson, Julius Caesar, Cris Tinley, George Anderson, Alf Clarke, Edgar Willsher, John Bickley and John Jackson. The UAEE fielded John Wisden (captain), Thomas Hunt, James Dean, John Grundy, William Caffyn, Henry Wright, John Lillywhite, Fred Bell, Tom Lockyer, William Mortlock and William Martingell. Most of them were young men in the cricketing sense and close to their best. Several had previous experience of Lord’s at Whitsuntide, among them Martingell, Dean and notably Parr who had appeared in the Pilch’s XI v Felix’s XI fixture in honour of the latter in 1846 when Prince Albert spent a couple of 14