Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

90 Incredible Success of the All-England Eleven The two pieces in Bolland and Pycroft demonstrate just how important William Clarke was as a player and a captain in the early 1850s. This standing among the intelligentsia of the game was reinforced the following year, when Nicholas Felix published, perhaps in answer to Clarke’s Bolland essay, How To Play Clarke, subtitled ‘being an attempt to Unravel the Mysteries of the Ball and to show What Defence and Hitting are to be Employed Against this Celebrated Bowler.’ This short work is also illustrated by Felix. He was a man with a good sense of humour and fond of using word play to comical advantage, though Clarke sometimes trumped him. Felix related the following incident when a train in which Clarke and Felix were travelling stopped unexpectedly with a view of a cricket match seen out of the window: ‘Did you see that, Muster Felix?’ remarked Clarke. ‘I did.’ ‘Whoey, then that’s juist as folk ought to play me.’ ‘How is that?’ ‘Whoey, with the head,’ responded Clarke. The poor batsman had just received a ball straight on his head.