Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

65 as many All-England players as were available to spend the day after the Leeds match at Harewood Park – in fact only the umpire Caldecourt and apparently Sherman came; an informal match took place in Harewood Park. Cricket did not end with the Swaffham match; on 21 and 22 September, at Hyde Park in Sheffield, Clarke and George Butler played a single-wicket match for £25 against Thomas Hunt and Samuel Baldwinson. A day later the same pairs travelled to Moss Lane, Manchester for a return match. The Manchester players won both games. The second match was also for £25, proving an expensive end of season for Clarke and Butler. It is worth noting that, with Clarke no longer at the Trent Bridge Inn, no important matches were staged on the adjoining ground during the season. A friendly opening match on 25 May – single-innings and one- day – resulted in the solitary comment, ‘attendance very poor’, though George Parr played and scored 97. The next reported match was on Whit Monday, 1 June. John Chapman with 31 was the highest scorer. Tentative arrangements for Nottingham to play Cambridge were made, but the game was cancelled as Cambridge withdrew. 27 July saw the annual Town v County contest; John Chapman appeared for the Town, the Inn having this curious situation of being half in and half out of the town. A Gentlemen v Players game was arranged for Trent Bridge for 3 August, but it was rained off. It was re-arranged for a week later. John Chapman appeared for the Gentlemen, but was described as a professional. The Trent Bridge season closed with Physic v Law on 3 September – an innings of 41 by T.B.Redgate gave Law victory. The principal reported sporting activity on Trent Bridge ground during the winter months around this time was pigeon shooting. George Parr, who was noted as being absent from the three initial England matches, of course merits more than a passing comment, since his place beside Clarke was to be so prominent in future seasons. He was born at Radcliffe on Trent in 1826, and the following description was written in 1853 by J.F.Sutton: He is undoubtedly the first batsman in the country, and for brilliancy and precision of striking has never been surpassed. He occupies now the same commanding position that Fuller Pilch did, some ten or fifteen years since; with this difference, that Pilch, though a powerful and most dexterous batter, never possessed the grace and finish displayed by the subject of this notice. Parr excels greatly in leg hits. Were there no such thing as leg-hitting, we should see a full bat every time the ball came, with the batsman steady on his legs and only one thing to think of, and what a task a bowler would have! It is generally the upright straight players that weary a bowler – twenty-two inches of wood by four-and-a-quarter – every inch of them before the stumps, batting or blocking, it is that that is rather discouraging; but the moment a man makes ready for a leg-hit, the bat points to slip instead of to bails and only about five inches by four of wood covers the wicket; so leg-hitting, with ordinary players, is the bowler’s chance; cutting, also, for a similar reason. But not so with George Parr; so unerring is his aim, he gives the Leaving Trent Bridge