Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

12 indicates that there were two married couples both called William and Katharine Wigley. One couple resided for some time in Lenton, but that Katharine Wigley died the year before William Clarke married Jane Wigley so she could not therefore have been a witness at the marriage. There seems to be no extant record of either pair of William and Katharine Wigley themselves being married in Nottinghamshire, nor can be found a burial for the second Katharine/Catherine Wigley. At the time of writing, therefore, I have to accept that no definite details of William Clarke’s wife’s immediate ancestors beyond the assumption that William and Katharine/Catherine Wigley are probably her parents have been unearthed – hopefully some future historian will fill this gap. The present frontage of the Bell Inn is little changed from the nineteenth century. Nicholas Pevsner, in his architectural survey of Nottinghamshire, dated the frontage circa 1830, although the English Heritage listings suggests circa 1820. If Pevsner is correct then it would appear that William Clarke was responsible for the façade we see today. What is known, though, about Clarke’s early cricketing? The answer is ‘exceedingly little’. The game itself in Nottingham had been, like most other leisure activities, seriously affected by the political and financial climate caused by the long war with France. The Nottingham Club played three matches in 1800, a single one in 1801, then not a single fixture was recorded in the subsequent eleven years. On 17 September 1813, the Nottingham Review printed the following piece: The manly and athletic game of cricket for which the boys of Sherwood have been so long and so justly famed, it was thought had fallen into disuse, if not disgrace, the match however, which was played in Gallows Close last Monday between eleven players of the town and eleven of the county, has removed all apprehensions of this nature. Two matches were played, but no one surnamed Clark(e) featured in either eleven. The reason for these two trial matches was that Nottingham had challenged Leicester, giving Leicester the advantage of twenty-two players against the Nottingham twelve. The game was played on a neutral ground at Loughborough and the Nottingham Club was much too ambitious, losing by an innings. The losing twelve comprised six from the county side and six from the town. While this match was in progress Nottingham Second Eleven played Wollaton on Gallows Close: no Clarke features in this lesser match – he would now be aged 14. Sutton’s book prints the score of the Loughborough game, but the author fails to mention it in his narrative history. The Nottingham Review printed numerous local match details during 1814: in one, played at Holme Lane on July 19, two players, William Clarke and Wm Clarke, appeared for Cropwell Bishop v Radcliffe. It is impossible to say whether either of them is the cricketer of later fame. A William Clarke appears in matches for Cropwell each season from 1819 to 1822, so it seems probable this was another William Clarke. Tracing Clarke’s Early Life