Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

29 winning by seven wickets – the three-day game was played on The Forest. The second Nottingham match was played on The Forest against fourteen of Leicester for 60 guineas, commencing on 25 August. Clarke batted at No.4, but the feature of the match was an innings by Joe Dennis. If the second-innings order is correct, Dennis opened and was still unbeaten with 50 not out when the last wicket fell. The report comments: ‘Dennis was in more than three hours and had so got into the spirit of the game that the ball seemed to fly to and from his bat as though it had been a magic wand.’ Clarke does not feature in any of the six local club matches published in the Nottingham press during 1823. There are no recorded Nottingham Club matches in 1824 – one assumes no club within travelling distance would risk challenging Nottingham. Bingham, however, challenged Sheffield to a match on 4 August for reportedly 100 sovereigns, but suffered in consequence, being beaten by eight wickets. Four regular Nottingham Club players, including Clarke, reinforced the Bingham team – Clarke scored nought and nine. This match has importance locally being the only time Bingham attempted to challenge such notable opponents. It was the first game to be played on Mr Steer’s enlarged and improved venue at Darnall and it was the first recorded match in which the soon-to-be-famous Tom Marsden appeared. He bowled out eleven Bingham batsmen and made Sheffield’s highest score. With no nearby opponents and having overwhelmed Holt (or in another version, Norfolk), Nottingham had little option but to cast their net wider and challenged Bury St Edmunds in 1825. Matters did not go smoothly. Three successive weekly editions of the Bury and Norwich Post reported on the negotiations. On 31 August it stated, ‘A grand cricket match for £100 a side between the Bury and Nottingham Clubs will be played at Rougham, near this town before the season’s over. The day and other particulars we shall be able to state in our next.’ On 7 September, it noted that ‘The grand Match of Cricket for £100 a side between the Bury and Nottingham Clubs will be played at Rougham, near this town on Monday next. As the Bury Club is to have the assistance of Messrs Brand and Mathews and another Gentleman from Suffolk and as the Nottingham players are very celebrated, the Match excites the greatest interest.’ Finally on 14 September: ‘Owing to a demur on the part of the Nottingham Club the great match of Cricket which was to have commenced on Monday at Rougham near this town was declared “off” and it was not until two o’clock that a new arrangement of terms was completed. In consequence of this delay only one innings was played that evening, in which the Bury side scored 76. The Nottingham men went in at ten o’clock yesterday morning, but the match was not expected to be finished in the day.’ The newspaper for 21 September then gives a detailed account of the game. In essence, Nottingham claimed they did not realize that such famous players as Brand and Mathews were going to take part. Bury agreed to reduce the stake from £100 to £40 and to pay Nottingham £20 towards their expenses. The betting commenced at 5 to 4 against Bury, but when Bury obtained a lead of 23 after the first innings, the odds were changed The 1820s