Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

47 of Sam Redgate); the other amateurs, Creswell and Foxcroft, have been previously mentioned. In 1841 T.B.Charlton was the principal promoter of the first attempt to set up a formal Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. One assumes he had noted that Sussex had just founded such a County Club. The main reason for such a club was to finance the cost of county away matches. Charlton’s creation however seems to have led a rather shadowy existence, if only because Clarke was such a dominant figure in local Notts cricket and, of course, controlled his newly laid-out Trent Bridge Ground. Clarke opened the batting for the county, both in the Sussex match and the one v Kent at Town Malling, where Isaac Johnson replaced Patchitt who had to return to Nottingham on business. Notts beat Kent with Clarke taking nine wickets in the second innings and Guy hitting an unbeaten 73 – quite a feat against the bowling of Alfred Mynn and William Hillyer. It was the first time that Clarke had taken nine wickets in an innings in a ‘first-class’ match. Unfortunately the detailed bowling analysis has never been found, but with both Pilch and Mynn among the opposition batsmen, it is possibly Clarke’s greatest bowling feat. It is a surprise, in view of Clarke’s brilliant bowling, that he was not chosen for the North of England v MCC at Lord’s a month later; even more surprising because the North included Abram Bass (of the Burton brewery family) and G.M.Kettle, two amateurs who were hardly of county standard. (Both played once for Notts in 1843.) From Clarke’s viewpoint the most significant match of the summer was Nottinghamshire v Sussex on 27 and 28 July 1840. It was the first inter- county contest ever staged at Trent Bridge. Clarke opened the batting and performed well in a low-scoring game, hitting 17 and 13. He also took six wickets in Sussex’s second innings – Notts seemed certain to win with the score 66 for five and only 38 required, but the last four wickets went down for one run, Nottinghamshire losing by 14. From Clarke’s angle the monetary returns were less than expected – the match lasted two days instead of three and the crowds were modest now that spectators had to pay. Clarke arranged, at Trent Bridge, what for Nottingham was a new fixture: Gentlemen v Players. On 8 June the one innings per side game ended in a tie. The Gentlemen were aided by three professionals. A return match, again at Trent Bridge, was won by the Players by five wickets. Another innovation was the game Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire with Clarke versus Chaddesden and Burton upon Trent with S.Dakin. No doubt this game was organized through Abram Bass. Sam Dakin was a professional with the South Derbyshire Club, but played one game for Nottinghamshire in 1845. Dakin hit an unbeaten 51 to take his side to an eight-wicket victory. Finally on September 11, Nottinghamshire opposed Capt Hogge’s XI at Trent Bridge, winning by an innings, with Sam Parr making 72 and Tom Barker 52. In the spring of 1841 the first detailed census was taken. The address of the Trent Bridge Inn is historically interesting since the Nottingham Fate Takes a Hand