Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

81 Incredible Success of the All-England Eleven Lillywhite’s Guide to Cricketers 1851 , which annual covers the summer of 1850, provides this pen portrait of William Clarke: Clarke, William, the celebrated slow bowler, was born at Nottingham in 1798. He is the able Secretary of the All England Eleven, and arranges all their matches. Clarke has been instrumental in promoting the game of cricket to its present height in the North of England. Expanding the All-England Eleven matches by a further three fixtures for 1850, Clarke made a very early start to the season with a game in Carlisle beginning on 1 April. He also allowed the home sides in most matches to employ generally two or three ‘given’ men. In the case of XXII of Carlisle, the side was aided by Charles Lawrence, G.H.Wright and George Anderson. They were the first three bowlers used by Carlisle and took seven of the nine AEE wickets that fell to bowlers; in addition Wright and Lawrence were two of only four batsmen to achieve a double-figure score. Despite this help, Carlisle still lost by an innings. Clarke’s side then moved north to Edinburgh to oppose XXII of Scotland, building on the tremendous success the 1849 visit had generated. The All-England Eleven of 1850 showed little change from the regulars of 1847 – Clarke, Pilch, Mynn, Guy, Martingell, Hillyer, Felix and Parr, plus Box, the regular keeper from 1848. Wisden and Chatterton who had made frequent appearances in 1849 retained their places. The only new regular player in 1850 was Thomas Adams, who usually played in place of Pilch, perhaps because the latter, due to his Kent contract, was available for only 11 games. Fred Lillywhite’s contemporary note on Adams reads: ‘Thomas Adams was born at Gravesend in 1815; stands 5ft 10in. He is a very severe hitter and a very good bowler, and is in the habit of delivering the ball over the wicket. This season he has taken a house and ground at Ipswich.’ He was actually born in 1813 – another example of a professional cricketer trimming a year or two off his age – the note regarding his bowling over the wicket is made because most round-arm bowlers delivered round the During the 1849 season, the All-England Eleven started to play eleven-a-side fixtures. In the first of these, a drawn match at Fenner’s against a Cambridge team, Clarke’s side included Tom Box, William Martingell and George Parr.