Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

109 The Last Summers in a cricket match in the county of his birth. Fred Lillywhite notes that Charley Brown had a disagreement with the gentlemen who ran county cricket at Trent Bridge, hence the venue. Clarke took 277 wickets for the All-England Eleven in this his last complete season. The programme for All-England matches for 1856 comprised 21 matches, beginning at Christ Church, Oxford, the most aristocratic of the Oxford colleges, on 15 May. Clarke was not in the eleven, but appeared in the next two fixtures at Durham on 19 to 21 May and at Neath on 2 to 4 June, though only as a batsman. The AEE then went on to Cirencester and Downham Market before going up to Whitehaven in Cumberland. Missing those first two games, Clarke appeared in the last of these fixtures and put himself on to bowl in the closing minutes of Whitehaven’s first innings, taking two wickets for 13 in 9.1 overs. He captured the final wicket – J.Towerson, possibly one of two Johns resident in the town according to the 1851 Census – who was stumped by George Morton for none. Haygarth states Clarke was ‘very weak’. Three more AEE fixtures were completed before the team arrived at Melton Mowbray for the match played on 10, 11 and 12 July. William Clarke officiated as an umpire. Fred Lillywhite notes: ‘it was the last match in which the renowned slow bowler, Clarke, took any part.’ It is worthy of note that the ground at Melton is still known as the All England Cricket Ground – the venue off Saxby Road currently contains both rugby and cricket pitches. The details of very few Trent Bridge matches are published in the Nottingham newspapers in 1856 and the few that do appear feature Nottingham Amateurs CC – the only Nottinghamshire game was played at Newark in August, as previously noted. In order to obtain some relief from his ailments, Clarke travelled from Melton to the then spa town of Askern, about four miles north of Doncaster and known for its medical waters. He stayed for four weeks, but did not recover and moved to London, to Priory Lodge, Wandsworth Road, Kennington, some 15 minutes’ walk from The Oval. (The area these days is in the Battersea postal district.) In an 1849 trade directory a building known as the ‘Priory’ at the corner of Priory Road and Wandsworth Road (South) was listed as a Ladies School – it is shown as a large house about three times the size of surrounding properties. In an 1853 directory ‘Priory Lodge’ is occupied by Henry Wilson on the north side of Wandsworth Road on the estate of Springfield House. This area was extensively redeveloped during the latter half of the nineteenth century with the construction of Nine Elms railway depot. Much of this is now the New Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market. It was at Priory Lodge that William Clarke died on 25 August 1856, cause of death ‘paraplegia’; witness at death Henry W. Petty. According to the Nottinghamshire Guardian , he had been ‘long suffering under a severe and protracted attack of paralysis’. Paralysis of the lower half of the body is often caused by a spinal-cord injury. The All-England Eleven began a match at Loughborough against a local Twenty-Two on 25 August. On learning of his father’s imminent demise, Alfred Clarke left the game, but arrived in London too late to see his father