Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

99 Controversy management – and beat Surrey at one innings, and 43 runs to spare, the same party that had beaten England, but I did not play Nixon, getting 6 wickets, Bickley 2, and 2 run out. By the fielding of A.Clarke the first innings, got 6 wickets, Bickley 2 and Grundy 2. The second innings they got 138 runs. They got 65 runs from me at both innings and I got 12 wickets. ‘Oh no, he never mentions it!’ Let this one-sided gentleman add the following two matches played in London to the other five he picked out that I and Grundy played in, I think that will open the eyes of the readers to his impartiality: M Balls Runs Wkts Av.p.M Av.R Av Clarke 2 516 154 38 10 77 4 Grundy 2 216 69 6 3 38 10 I was told not to bring Dean three years ago, they did not want to see such cricket as that – good judges too – Now that is one that would come at any price and give me the sayings and doings of his brother cricketers in at the bargain. This ‘Lover’ says that in the year ’51 at The Oval, there were the two strongest Elevens ever got together. The broken-down Hillyer played. Wisden went back to his own side, the South: he was to turn the scale. I won again, by 60 runs. The first innings I got 7 wickets, Buttress 1, two run out; second innings, I got 8 wickets, Buttress 2. They got 96 runs from me out of 213. I got 15 wickets. Grundy bowled in that match. Oh, no, he never mentions it! Wisden got one wicket on the South side. Kent and England at Canterbury, none: Surrey and Sussex at Brighton, 2 wickets. But look at the quantity of runs at one innings each; they got 500 runs, there must have been something wrong; and this terrible match at Lord’s, he gets 2 wickets in the match and they get 55 runs. I got 3 wickets, they got 90, my average 30, his 27.5 – wonderful difference. I have been on the winning side of the North and South matches for these last six years. I won every match in London, year ’51, but two and had won sixteen out of eighteen, when an accident put a stop to my career; and this year I should have been on the winning side in 25 out of 32 matches if they had been played out. Look at the records of matches where I have played. I got all the wickets (15) at Brighton two years since; Wisden, Martingell and Hillyer at the other end. There is something belonging to cricket besides bowling, and batting and fielding – you may as well call my friend, Jonathan Kentfield, the finest billiard player in England, a dodger, because he plays the game with science. Cricketer’s Guide says: ‘Clarke is a remarkably fine slow bowler, and his precision and thorough knowledge of the game is wonderful. He is the able Secretary of the All England Eleven, and arranges all their matches, which is a task of great labour. He has done much to promote the game of Cricket throughout England and Scotland.’ Look at such men as Parr, Caffyn, Caesar, Anderson, Bickley; Box at the wicket, Guy at the stop. Why, I would go a hundred miles any day to see