Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

cricket from 1861 to 1864, and was captain in the summers of 1863 and 1864. He later spoke of his wish whilst at school to be able to go up to Oxford University, to play in the university cricket eleven and to row in the Oxford boat. He was to attain all those wishes. Whether there was a formal cricket club at Slingsby at which Edmund could play in school holidays is not now known, but the great house at Castle Howard had a cricket ground within walking distance and occasional games in the lovely setting of that estate would have been a particular pleasure for anyone fortunate enough to play there. Castle Howard was home to the Langton Wold Cricket Club, later becoming the Vale of Derwent Cricket Club. A great avenue of trees leading to Castle Howard House began at Slingsby, an ideal approach to the cricket ground. The Malton Club formed around 1870, and just a few miles away, would also later provide playing opportunities for Edmund. Anyway, and upon his leaving school, and in his summer vacation of 1864 before going up to university CricketArchive has a record of three matches in which Edmund played. He would by that summer have been a strapping lad aged 19, and he was known to have a big physique. In August he played for Harewood against I Zingari in The Park at Harewood House. In September he then played for the Gentlemen of Yorkshire against the Gentlemen of Lancashire. His scores in the latter match were one and nought but he played in the distinguished company of another five amateurs who had or would play for the Yorkshire County side, A.J.A.Wilkinson, A.Walker, C.H. and W.Prest and B.W.Waud. That match was at Wigginton Road in York, where the Yorkshire county side were later once to play a first-class match. Indeed he did so well in other matches for the Gentlemen of Yorkshire in that season that at the season’s end (when he was still aged 19) he received a silver plaque for achieving the best average of all their players that year – 32.5 runs per innings. That plaque with others to come in future years was later attached to the bat given to him in Australia in 1869, of which more below. Also in September 1864 he was playing for Thirsk against an All England XI at the Racecourse Ground in Thirsk. Though in Family 12