Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

41 Chapter Six Fate Takes a Hand As a result of the 1836 North v South matches, Clarke was not slow to take up the MCC offer of a North v South match at Nottingham. On 26 May 1837 the Nottingham Review announced: ‘Amongst various matches arranged this season is Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire with Box and Cobbett against England at Lord’s with a return at Nottingham.’ On the same date, the paper has a second cricket notice: A Public Meeting was held at the Poultry Hotel last Tuesday to calculate the expenses incurred in playing two matches with Sussex. A highly respectable committee with power to add to their number was nominated to collect the necessary subscriptions and it was agreed to apply by letter to the patrons of this manly exercise among the nobility and gentry of the County. (In view of the opinion expressed in the newspaper article of 15 July 1836 it is rather quaint to read that the nobility and gentry are to be bombarded with cricket begging letters – no more seems to have been heard of this ‘respectable committee’, but in 1840 some amateurs were drafted into the county side so perhaps the meeting produced positive results, though no extant details seem to materialize until 1841.) The Sussex fixtures were arranged for Brighton (Brown’s Ground) on 24 July and for The Forest on 21 August. Sussex developed from collecting a list of subscribers for match expenses in 1836 to a full-blown Sussex County Cricket Club operating from the start of the 1839 season. Why the good folk of Nottingham did not immediately follow the same course, will become quite obvious as the events of the next decade unfold and it was not until 1859 that a fully functioning organization became properly established, though there were attempts and earlier flimsy clubs prior to that year. The 1837 season in Nottingham opened with a match on The Forest on 5 June, incidentally a few days before the accession of Queen Victoria, aged 18, to the throne. The game was between eleven of the New Forest Club with Barker and Jarvis given against ‘the best eleven that Mr Clarke can field from the Town and County’. The New Forest Club scored 147 of which Tom Barker made 62 and George Jarvis 23. In reply what, in the press, is entitled the Old Club made 121 with Joe Guy scoring 20. A note appended to the score states that Deakin, a Leicester player, was bowling in place of Barker. Why, we don’t know. Barker had been unable to bowl in the North v South game at Leicester. On 3 July on The Forest, Sixteen picked by Clarke opposed Eleven picked by Barker. Jarvis, Good and Redgate were unavailable being engaged that