Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

80 Incredible Success of the All-England Eleven for the opposition in the latter match. Perhaps Haygarth’s assessment of Lindow was a trifle unfair. Lindow left the AEE team after the eighth match, being replaced by William Lautour (1812-1899). Lautour had arranged for the AEE to play a match on his own ground in Weymouth against Dorset. Left-handed both as a batsman and bowler, he played in several matches for MCC between 1845 and 1847. Why did Clarke include these amateurs? One reason could have been simply to save money, but more likely the presence of wealthy amateurs improved the gravitas of the team. A third amateur, Alexander Marshall (1820-1871), one of three brothers closely connected with Surrey County Cricket Club, played once for the AEE in 1849, twice in 1850 and eight times in 1851, then occasionally in 1852 and 1853. He played as a batsman for Surrey in 14 matches between 1849 and 1857. It was not a total coincidence that Clarke captained the Nottinghamshire side that played Surrey on Marshall’s private ground, Broadwater Park, near Godalming, in 1854. It was the only first-class county match ever staged at that venue. We can assume that these amateurs themselves gained prestige from playing alongside the leading practitioners of their time. Two professionals playing regularly for the first time in AEE ranks in 1849 were John Wisden and George Chatterton. Both had played the odd game earlier. Wisden took the place of Dean, whilst Chatterton replaced Dorrinton. Chatterton was, like Dorrinton, a good batsman and a wicketkeeper; he stood behind the stumps for Yorkshire, but had little opportunity in that position for the AEE, due to the presence of Box – he played frequently for Clarke’s side only in 1849 and 1850 since in 1851 he joined the groundstaff at Lord’s and remained there for 14 seasons. After the first three seasons of trial and error, when he allowed the opposition varying numbers of players with the results quite often going against the All-England Eleven, Clarke in 1849 appeared to gauge the opposition’s strength with more accuracy. Of the 21 matches he arranged, the AEE won 14, five were rain-affected draws and just two ended in defeat. One of these was against Derbyshire when R.C.Tinley, later to be a regular in the AEE ranks, caused problems as a bowler; the other was at Newark, when Tinley again proved the vehicle for England’s downfall, taking nine AEE wickets in the first innings, with his brothers, Vincent and Frank, being the two highest scoring Newark batsmen! Though Clarke was busier than ever, things were very quiet on the Trent Bridge Ground. John Chapman scored 58 for Notts Amateurs v Leicester on Barker’s Ground at Leicester, but the only major game played at Trent Bridge in the season seems to have been Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire v I Zingari on 9 and 10 August. I Zingari had been founded in 1845 and in 1849 greatly expanded their fixture list, which included many new matches in the Midlands. The club played on Parr and Wisden’s ground at Leamington two or three days prior to the Trent Bridge match. It is believed that the home side was unique – never again did the Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire raise a joint eleven. John Chapman did not play in the combined team.