Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

44 following year. The following description gives a feel of West Bridgford in Clarke’s years there: From the Trent Bridge to the little village was nearly half-a-mile, down a narrow lane, with hedges and overhanging trees. The long bridge over the brook on Bridgford Road consisted of seven arches, but wide enough for one vehicle only, guarded by posts and rails. It was an ideal country village, with its embowered church, the squire’s hall, two or three gentlemen’s houses, each cottage in a garden, with woodbine, honeysuckle, jasmine or roses adorning the front, big trees in the crofts, several farm houses with orchards and the vigorous rippling brook running down from its spring; the cattle grazing in the fields, with tall hedges and quietness everywhere. The first mention of a cricket match in West Bridgford with Clarke’s name attached to the venue, was published in the Nottingham Review of Friday, 1 June 1838: On Monday [28 May] the match between ten players selected [by Clarke] from Bingham, Ratcliffe [sic] and Holme Lane Clubs against ten of the New Forest Club with Barker, was played in a field adjoining Mr Clarke’s Trent Bridge Inn. The following is the score of the day’s play, which was however, interrupted by rain in the afternoon; but Clarke’s side having so great an advantage, the game was given up in their favour. The New Forest Club made 60 and 60 for seven; Clarke’s side 105. Clarke bowled out four in the first innings and three in the second; he also scored 17 not out. There is a Chapman (no initial) in Clarke’s side – presumably John. In August, when Bingham played Holme Lane on the Trent Bridge ground, the Nottingham Review adds a note: ‘It is but justice to Mr Clarke to say that he has displayed great judgment in laying out the Trent Bridge Ground and the admirable condition in which it is kept renders it a delightful place for the practice of this healthiest and most manly of British Sports.’ (Clarke was flying in the face of the opinion expressed in 1836 that private grounds were a thing to be abhorred because the profits went to the owner and, as the years were to tell, he rued the day he founded Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.) The match itself was significant in that William Clarke scored 128 of the 248 Holme Lane total, and Bingham were all out for 14 and 15! The Nottingham Journal notes: ‘Clarke was never in better play than this season: he is becoming the Pilch of the Midland Counties. The Trent Bridge ground is beautifully laid out and is kept in admirable order under the spirited superintendence of Mr Clarke.’ In 1837 the road, about three miles in length linking the Trent Bridge Inn to Radcliffe on Trent, was called Gamston Lane as far as the hamlet of Gamston and then Holme Lane for the remainder of its journey. (It is now Radcliffe Road and in part the A52.) The Holme Lane Cricket Club took its name from this road. Fate Takes a Hand