Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

31 Marsden. He was top scorer for Sheffield in five of the eight innings played and hit another three-figure score on The Forest in the 1828 game – 125 out of a Sheffield total of 220. In the match on The Forest in 1827, the Nottingham Review reported: ‘Jefferies, the Nottingham umpire, no-balled Marsden for jerking the ball, so frequently that the Sheffield players left the field.’ Play was not resumed until 4 o’clock when Nottingham agreed to replace Jefferies with William Taylor of Radcliffe. Whether the term ‘jerk’ in this context is intended to mean bowling above elbow height it is not possible to determine. As noted in the previous chapter the phrasing ‘thrown or jerked’ was introduced in the 1816 version of the bowling Laws. Haygarth describes Marsden as ‘very fast under-arm and round-arm of moderate speed’. There seem to be strict regulations governing the qualification of players in these Nottingham v Sheffield games – Emmanuel Vincent, who had lived in Nottingham ‘for some time’, but was a native of Sheffield, was not allowed to appear for Nottingham, but was permitted to do so the following year. Clarke was easily the outstanding all-rounder during these matches. His bowling down of 16 wickets was the most by any Nottingham bowler and his total of 91 runs was only exceeded by George Jarvis. Jarvis (1800-1880) was the first Nottingham Club player to be selected for an England team, appearing at Darnall in the 1827 England v Sussex match. He later played five times for the Players v Gentlemen at Lord’s. The match with Sheffield on 1, 2 and 3 September 1828 is of historical interest, the Nottingham Review stating: ‘Mr J.Dennis declined to play and T.Heath substituted, so that the whole of the “Old First Eleven” as they are called have now done with playing. Thomas Warsop stood umpire with William Charlton of Chilwell.’ The great match of 1828 was All-England v Three Counties at Darnall on 8, 9 and 10 September. Clarke, with Barker, Jarvis and Vincent, were the Nottingham representatives in the Counties’ eleven (Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire), but the round-arm bowling of Broadbridge and Lillywhite utterly routed the Counties – all out 60 and 32, with England winning by 242 runs. Sheffield contributed five players and Leicester two. Clarke took a single wicket bowled, and scored six and two. The game was considered a direct forerunner of the first ‘official’ North v South match and was a desperate attempt by the owner of the Darnall Ground to boost its image – very shortly a newly developed ground in Sheffield ‘Hyde Park’ would take over as the town’s principal cricket venue. The 1820s