Cricket Witness No 1 - Class Peace

31 Diaspora; Cricketing Migration What William Clarke and his fellow-entrepreneurs discovered was that generations of gratis entertainment had built a shyness about payment to watch. Nottingham’s cricket-lovers were used to watching cricket on the Forest racecourse. Theirs was, so to speak, free love. Cricket’s William and Mary did not prosper as they had hoped. ‘The crowds’, says Derek Birley, ‘...were not flocking to Trent Bridge’. Even though approaching his own half century, the intrepid bowler placed his son-in-law in charge of the ground and headed for London, where he, much remarked on as a canny bowler, joined the Lord’s ground staff. 6 At that time MCC offered employment to ten bowlers. It was a limited but solid job with MCC proving extremely loyal to these men. William Lillywhite was still on the Lord’s staff when he died suddenly aged 62. The bread and butter work was practice for MCC members with sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday during May, June and July – August found the gentlemen heading to the grouse moors. It was the closest then to being a full-time professional but, for William Clarke, the pay was inadequate. At the close of the 1846 summer, with MCC members dispersed to shoot game, William Clarke mustered an eleven to play three matches against odds in Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. It would be a century and a bit before Kerry Packer was to have the same bright idea. William Clarke called it the All-England XI (AEE). In previous generations random teams had been labeled ‘England’, just as club and sponsored sides had played under county banners, all aimed at attracting spectators. In 1826, for example, the Wellesbourne club sometimes played as ‘Warwickshire.’ William Clarke’s eleven did have a much more rational claim to its title. Five of that initial team were from the MCC staff, so the bowling was taken care of by the best available. They were joined by the likes of Fuller Pilch, reckoned to be England’s premier batsman, and Joseph Guy, another prominent bat of the day. For years this high standard was maintained. What is perhaps interesting from the viewpoint of a study aimed at class analysis is William Clarke’s wily decision to include two amateurs, the very gifted Alfred Mynn, the giant Kentish star and the lesser known if more lengthily named Rev. Villiers Shallet Charnock Smith. Invaluable as he was as a player, Alfred Mynn, along with one or two other gentlemen, was indispensable for the social aspects of the tours, which often involved the meeting with and greeting of local dignitaries, especially where fixtures had been arranged at stately homes. Nicholas Felix, also of Kent and of gentle birth, was soon drafted in as Alfred Mynn’s coeval for this purpose; like the other, he was an extremely fine cricketer. One must assume that, in the amateur tradition, they received liberal expenses. The need for polite glad-handing reflected the enormous impact made by these ‘warriors’, as they were often nicknamed, with William Clarke branded ‘our General’. Red carpets were unrolled, junketing was opulent and communities were enraptured by the visit of what, after all, was the nearest to a national team for any sport that had ever been witnessed. They played nine games in 1847, 17 in 1848...and 34 in 1851 and always more than twenty a summer until 1880. This was no flash in the pan.