Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Ealing 35 post-dinner speech stated that the success of the club was due in no small measure to the secretaries Mr Carter and now also Mr Gaskell, and further that he believed the club owed its existence to the exertions of Mr Carter. In replying Edmund Carter went through the accounts (slightly unusual in an after dinner speech) though he did comment that the pavilion cost £130 and he hoped that members would rally round to pay the remaining debt of £7 10s. He suggested that Ealing would soon be able to compete with better clubs. The published batting averages for that season showed that 19 matches were played of which 11 were won. No bowling averages were published. Carter was second in the batting averages with a highest score of 35 not out and an average of 19.5. Of the 44 players who participated in the season, no one achieved a score higher than 66 – so these averages well illustrate the problem of playing on pitches probably incredibly more difficult to bat on that in our times. Priesthood Carter’s nomination for the priesthood was also made in late 1872, and once again on a late December Sunday evening he would have attended St Paul’s for his elevation, at the hands of the same Bishop of London, to the priesthood. Sadly the package of papers relating to those priested on that day is now missing from the London Metropolitan Archives but a study of other papers indicates that his parish priest, Reverend Hilliard would have made, in all probability, a similar testimonial to that made by the Provost of Worcester College one year earlier. Future progress within the church would now depend on Carter’s own ambitions and achievements. 1873 Matches this year in which Carter played included innings victories over Bute House, and Templars and a match against Uxbridge which Ealing lost by an innings and 78 runs. Carter did manage, though, five Uxbridge wickets in their total of 200.