Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

26 class raised ‘county’ teams to oppose either MCC or an England Eleven selected by MCC. Surprisingly there were no major inter-county games. That all changed in 1823, when a Brighton businessman, James Ireland, took over the neglected Prince of Wales ground in the town, renaming the area as Ireland’s Pleasure Grounds. He built a substantial edifice which could be used for multiple purposes and laid out a bowling green and a racquet court in addition to the actual cricket ground. Ireland selected a Sussex county side, which in 1823 played MCC home and away and, after several false starts, in 1825, home and away matches versus Kent. This latter pair of matches were the first major inter-county contests for many years and can be considered the start of the modern County Championship. If the Sussex and Kent sides of the period from 1825 are compared with the Nottingham and Sheffield teams of the same dates, the one immediate difference is that Kent and Sussex both contained a mixture of amateurs and professionals, whereas both Nottingham and Sheffield sides were almost exclusively composed of professionals. This difference would continue over the next hundred years and establish, in a manner of speaking, the ‘North-South’ divide. Reverting to the NottinghamClub, no matches were played in 1819 or 1820; in 1821 Holt Cricket Club challenged Nottingham to a match to be played at Holt. The Norfolk side offered to pay Nottingham’s travelling expenses and the challenge was accepted. Holt scored 80 and 73; Nottingham 150 and then hit off the four runs required for victory without losing a wicket. William Clarke scored seven and bowled out five Holt batsmen in their second innings. In the press the match was advertised for 240 guineas (i.e. 120 guineas a side), which, if true, made the trip profitable for the Nottingham men. In August, what are described as ‘Eleven of the favourite and experienced players of the Cropwell and Bingham Clubs’ opposed twenty-two of the Fallowfield Club. Someone named Clarke with no initial plays for the eleven, but does little and the eleven are defeated; the match was played ‘near’ Colston Bassett. As mentioned before it is doubtful whether the Cropwell Clarkes are directly connected to William. Commencing on 10 September, Eleven of the Nottingham Club played Sixteen of the whole of the county of Leicester in Abbey Meadow, Leicester, not the usual field. The Nottingham press seem more interested in the fact that William Charlton Esq of Chilwell agreed to umpire and reported that ‘William Charlton was umpire all three days and from every quarter we have heard the most handsome testimonies to his great attention, his quick discernment and his gentlemanly conduct.’ William Charlton was High Sheriff of Nottingham in 1824; his son, T.B.Charlton (1815-1886) played for Nottinghamshire in 1840. Clarke’s ability as a batsman was apparent with innings of seven and 18, and though the figures of course look modest by later standards, both proved the highest for Nottingham; the team were all out for 24 and 56. They lost by an innings. Leicester then challenged Nottingham to an eleven-a-side match at Loughborough: Nottingham accepted, but later The 1820s