Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

106 Chapter Ten The Last Summers The three or four known extant letters written, or perhaps dictated, by Clarke all date from the winter of 1855/56 and are simply routine correspondence regarding confirmation of AEE fixtures. They are all written on printed notepaper headed ‘Anglesea Hotel, W.’ The letter Clarke wrote to The Era newspaper in December 1852 gives Clarke’s address as ‘Anglesea Hotel, Haymarket’. The hotel was situated at No.64 on the west side of the road; the site is now occupied by a cinema (built in 1927 as the Carlton Theatre). It would seem most likely that Clarke used the Anglesea as his headquarters during the close season, at least from 1852/53 to 1855/56. The hotel dates from about 1842 and was still being used in 1860. Newspaper references to it indicate that it was a place frequented by sporting gentlemen mainly, but not entirely connected with the turf and the hotelkeeper from 1845 was Edmund Wright (mis-spelt as Waight in the printed version of the 1851 census). In various reminiscences Clarke is mentioned as a shrewd betting man, and this venue would seem to confirm that. If the two assumptions – that Clarke lived in relative winter comfort in an Haymarket hotel and that he was partial to putting money on horses – are taken as fact, they support the suggestion (in the absence of any will) that Clarke died leaving little in the way of cash. In short it appears that he readily spent all he earned. The summer of 1855 saw Clarke, now 56, begin his fortieth season of major cricket, according to Fred Lillywhite ‘a longer career than any other cricketer of note’. Nottinghamshire had played four matches in 1854, two each against England and against Surrey. There were no bona fide Nottinghamshire matches in 1855 – though one had been arranged and advertised, against Surrey at The Oval, but did not materialize. One assumes petty squabbling was the cause, but the Nottingham papers don’t appear to give any cogent reason. Clarke arranged 24 All-England matches, roughly the same number as in the three preceding summers. For the first time since the initial season, these fixtures did not begin until June. Was old age catching up with him? Clarke’s first match of the summer was for North v South at Lord’s on 28 and 29 May. The Northern eleven was chosen by his friend the Hon Frederick Ponsonby. Whether Ponsonby over-ruled his fellow members of the MCC Committee, or whether the Committee decided to rescind the ban they had imposed on Clarke is not known, but Clarke played a major role in the match. Fred Lillywhite notes: ‘The Hon Frederick Ponsonby used his best and able judgment in selecting the North side, while the South “team”