Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

113 Finally William Clarke’s youngest child, Alfred, was born at the Bell Inn, Angel Row and baptised at St Nicholas on 21 February 1830. Probably because of William Clarke’s abrupt departure from Nottingham when Alfred was 16, there seem to be no references in the Nottingham newspapers to Alfred playing cricket in local matches – I presume he played outside the county. His debut for the All-England Eleven occurred on 19 June 1851 and is explained by Fred Lillywhite’s notes in the 1852 edition of the Guide : ‘Clark, A. of Nottingham, son of the veteran, is the scorer for the [All-England] Eleven and played two matches for them; he is a very excellent field.’ He played in eight AEE matches the following summer; thereafter he was a permanent member of the All-England team. How long previous to 1851 he had acted as the team’s scorer is not known, but possibly at the same time he also took on the role of sorting out the travel arrangements as other commentators refer to him as being known as the team’s ‘Bradshaw’. His debut for Nottinghamshire was also in 1851, when he was a last minute replacement for R.C.Tinley. Alfred married Eliza Oliver in 1859 and they had two children, William Oliver, who died aged 15 in 1875 and Sarah Jane, born 1863, who married Alfred Wilson and had four children, Florence (b 1884), Alfred (b 1886), Eliza (b 1888) and Daisy (b 1890). Alfred Clarke’s county career ran parallel to his matches for AEE. He went to Australia with Parr’s side in 1863/64; his final county game was in 1863 and final AEE match the next summer. His last appearance in Lillywhite’s Guides occurs in the 1865 edition: ‘Clarke, Alfred, born at Nottingham February 16, 1831 [sic] was only to be seen in those matches against Twenty-twos, consequently not under much notice. He has been a fast-improving cricketer since his first appearance in the field, but has now taken to business.’ From 1856 he was also the cricket coach at Rossall School until the early 1860s. Alfred Clarke died at his home in Ruddington, just outside Nottingham on 23 October 1878. He is buried in Ruddington churchyard where a stone to his memory still stands – the stone also gives the details of his son, William Oliver. With William Clarke’s death, the management and captaincy of the All- England Eleven was taken over by George Parr, and in 1858 Lillywhite’s Guide lists the members of the All-England Eleven committee as Julius Caesar, Edgar Willsher, H.H.Stephenson, Alfred Clarke and George Anderson. On 1 June 1857 at Lord’s, the All-England Eleven met the United for the first time before what was described as the largest crowd seen on the ground for a long time. Lillywhite comments: The amalgamation of both Elevens, who strove to serve each other, was universally admired. It is hoped such cordiality and good feeling will continue to exist between these two celebrated bodies, and that each will boldly contest against all personal allusions coming from persons who are not sufficiently acquainted with the ‘manners and customs’ to form any judgment upon the matter. The two rival teams continued to play against each other until 1869, when the United was disbanded – in November 1864 a large group of the United players had announced that they would no longer play for that team, still Postscript