Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

101 Controversy committee, to manage, and play, and be the All England bowler. W.Clarke Secretary to the All England Cricket Committee Anglesea Hotel, 22 December There were five or six other letters in The Era , either supporting or not, Clarke and his management of the All-England Eleven. Alfred Mynn’s brother was perhaps the most notable of Clarke’s supporters and his letter was republished in Patrick Morrah’s biography of Alfred Mynn. For the purposes of this present book, the two principal letters will suffice. In The Elevens of England, Professor West states that ‘A Lover of Cricket’ was Charles George Merewether, QC (1823-1884), Conservative MP for Northampton from 1874 to 1880. James Pycroft acknowledges Merewether’s assistance in the preface to The Cricket Field. It will have been noticed that Clarke, in his letter, quotes extensively his bowling performances achieved during the year. Today’s cricket statisticians will, perhaps, be surprised that cricket stats meant so much to players as far back as in 1852. This point, however, is further emphasized in December 1852 with the following note in Bell’s Life : Clarke’s Averages: By an unfortunate, but unintentional mistake, Clarke’s averages were wrongly given in our list [of leading players’ records for 1852]. Clarke informs us that instead of 31 matches, 306 wickets, it should have been 31 matches, 440 wickets. When the 1853 summer came round, the professional cricketers in both the All-England and United All-England teams were probably relieved to return to the playing field, and try to forget Mr Merewether and the series The finer points of the argument. William Clarke and Charles Merewether conducted their dispute in these tight-packed columns of Bell’s Life, left and The Era, right, in December 1852.