Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

45 The first important local match of 1838 was the annual Town v County fixture. This was however played on The Forest. Clarke appeared for the County; also in the County side was John Chapman, his recently acquired younger stepson. This game therefore had not been moved to Clarke’s new ground, but on 9 July, a similar match entitled Barker’s Side v Clarke’s Side took place on Clarke’s New Ground at Trent Bridge. The other notable Nottingham match − no matches were arranged with teams outside the county − was on 3 September on The Forest, Nottingham Old Club First Eleven with A.Mynn and Caldecourt v The Next Twenty- Two of Nottinghamshire. Clarke captained the Twenty-Two, who won by 194 runs. The Eleven were all out for 36 and 49, but only four of their twenty wickets were bowled down, so it is impossible to give any credit to a specific bowler. The highest scorer in the match with 27 was Charles Brown – the report comments: ‘This is the first match of importance for Charles Brown since he has not played for or against the Old Club until now.’ During 1838 there were three major matches in the south that involved Nottinghamshire players, but Clarke was not chosen for any of them. No fewer than seven (Barker, Heath, Garrat, Jarvis, Guy, Gibson and Redgate) were in the North XI v South at Lord’s. The South won by eight wickets and the next bona fide North v South game was not played until 1849. The Gentlemen v Players game at Lord’s saw Barker, Garrat, Jarvis, Guy and Redgate in the professional eleven and finally Guy, Redgate, Jarvis and Garrat played in the England side v Sussex at Brighton – Haygarth notes that it was really Kent and Nottinghamshire v Sussex. The first match of note played on the Trent Bridge Ground in 1839 was for £20-a-side: this was Thomas Barker and XIII of the Rancliffe Arms Club Fate Takes a Hand Nottingham City Council’s plaque on the Bell Inn recognising Clarke’s ‘judgement’ at Trent Bridge.