Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

66 Leaving Trent Bridge bowler as little chance with the leg-hit as with any other, and punishes both ball, bowler and lyers-out, with an ease perfectly marvellous. Parr is one of the chief attractions of the All England Eleven; and no first- rate match can be considered complete without his services. Earlier, in 1849, Fred Lillywhite describes Parr as the celebrated bat and the ‘England Pet’. Apart from Parr, a second player who missed out on the three 1846 matches, but whom Clarke had wanted in his team, was Nicholas Felix. He joined in 1847 and with Parr was then a regular. Like Alfred Mynn, Felix, being in theory an amateur, was paid ‘expenses’ by Clarke. Felix’s financial affairs were not quite as awry as Mynn’s, but not far off! Born in Camberwell in 1804, he took over as headmaster of Alfred House Academy when his father, the previous headmaster, died in 1824; the school moved from Camberwell to Blackheath in 1832, but his enthusiasm for cricket slowly overtook his enthusiasm for teaching and it seems that he abandoned the latter in 1847, when the programme of All-England matches expanded. In or about 1848 he was appointed President of the All-England Eleven, though Clarke remained in total control of the finances of the team. Felix (real name Wanostrocht) had made his debut for Gentlemen v Players in 1831 and continued to appear in those games until 1852. Living in Blackheath he played for Kent from 1834 to 1852. Caffyn describes his cricket: He was a beautiful bat (left-hand), being especially noted for his brilliant cutting, more particularly in the direction of cover-point (with the right leg in his case advanced). Mr Felix was undoubtedly one of the very finest exponents of this stroke ever seen. I have seen no batsman from W.G.Grace downwards who could excel him in this particular. Being a left-handed bat, he had ample opportunities of indulging in this favourite hit of his, as most of the bowlers in those days did not change sides of the wicket when bowling to a left-handed man; and as they bowled round the wicket in most cases with a break from leg, a batsman like Felix had only to wait for a slightly over-tossed ball to punish it severely. Felix had published in 1845 an excellent book, entitled Felix on the Bat , an instructional work, which contained many excellent illustrations – he was a noted artist and carried his sketch pad and paints on his tours with All-England. In the two seasons of 1851 and 1852, Felix, during his travels with Clarke’s team, wrote reports on many of the matches. Some of these reports found their way into Bell’s Life . Felix also kept notes on the team’s off-the-field activities and in many cases produced water- colour sketches of the venues used by the team. It was his intention to publish this material as a book, but this did not occur. The diaries, notes and sketches came into the possession of MCC in 1944. Gerald Brodribb, whilst researching his biography of Felix, was able to study the material and determined that it should be published. Brodribb’s edited version was published by Boundary Books in 2002. Sad to relate, Gerald Brodribb died in 1999 and therefore never saw the finished volume.