Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

78 is very plain; and a nice mess, you will see, he will make of it. Ah! My friend, if you do go in at all, you must go in further than that, or my twist will beat you; and going in to swipe around, eh! Learn to run me down with a straight bat, and I will say something to you. But that wouldn’t score quite fast enough for your notions. Going in to hit round is a tempting of Providence.’ ‘There, that man is pure stupid; alter the pace and height with a dropping ball, and I shall have no trouble with him. They think, sir, it is nothing but “Clarke’s vexatious pace”: they know nothing about the curves. With fast bowling, you cannot have half my variety; and when you have found out the weak point, where’s the fast bowler that can give the exact ball to hit it? There is often no more head-work in fast bowling than there is in the catapult; without head-work I should be hit out of the field.’ ‘A man is never more taken aback than when he prepares for one ball, and I bowl him the contrary one: there was Mr Nameless, the first time he came to Nottingham, full of fancies about playing me. The first ball he walked some yards out to meet me, and I pitched over his head, so near his wicket, that, thought I, that bird won’t fight again. Next ball he was a little cunning, and made a feint of coming out, meaning, as I guessed, to stand back for a long hop; so I pitched right up to him; and he was so bent upon cutting me away, that he hit his own wicket down!’ ‘See, there,’ continues Clarke, ‘that gentleman’s is a dodge certainly, but not a new one either. He does step in it is true; but while hitting at the ball, he is so anxious about getting back again, that his position has all the danger of stepping in, and none of its advantage.’ ‘Then there is Mr -------,’ naming a Great man struggling with adversity. ‘He gives a jump up off his feet, and thinks he is stepping in, but comes flump down just where he was before.’ … ‘Pilch plays me better than anyone. But he knows better than to step in to every ball, or to stand fast every ball. He plays steadily, and discriminates, waiting till I give him a chance, and then makes the most of it.’ Clarke, in this fourth year of the All-England Eleven, was most careful to arrange his fixtures so that they did not clash with MCC-organized matches and the sequence of games over the next few weeks clearly demonstrates this: 18 and 19 June England v Surrey Lord’s 21 and 22 June AEE v Kent Gravesend 25 and 26 June MCC v Sussex Lord’s 28, 29 and 30 June AEE v XIV of Hampshire Southampton 9 and10 July England v Kent Lord’s 16 and 17 July North v South Lord’s 19, 20 and 21 July AEE v XXII of Hull Hull 23 and 24 July Players v Gentlemen Lord’s 26, 27 and 28 July AEE v XXII of Newark Newark Incredible Success of the All-England Eleven