Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Gentlemen of Yorkshire 58 well placed between and mid-on. He kept wicket well, but I never saw him bowl at that time, which was in the late seventies and early eighties.” Describing a batsman as ‘pretty’ is not a phrase that would be used today – but perhaps the word is used in the sense of ‘gracious’. It is good to have some description but curious that the writer never saw Carter bowl. The Gentlemen of Yorkshire and other matches from 1875 On his return to Yorkshire in 1875 Carter, naturally enough, started playing again for the Gentlemen of Yorkshire side. In late June playing for the Gentlemen against the Gentlemen of Cheshire (the Cestions) he took seven wickets in the Cheshire first innings, then top scored with 44 for his team, and then took another seven Cheshire wickets – an astonishing performance. The match was yet only drawn because of a magnificent rearguard 135 byA.N.Hornby playing for the Cheshire team. It was another fixture in that summer when Carter scored his 105 against the Gentlemen of Warwickshire recorded in time for posterity on a plaque on the back of his bat. The York Herald in 1876 printed the anticipated fixtures of the Gentlemen of Yorkshire. Their season started in early June, finishing in early September. It was a concentrated three month period in which the Gentlemen played at least 24 matches. The opponents included York, Wakefield, the Gentlemen of Cheshire, Beverley, Malton, Dalkeith (from Scotland), the Gentlemen of Durham, West of Scotland, Harrow Wanderers, Leeds Clarence, Halifax, the Barristers of the North East Circuit, St Peter’s School (from York), Scarthingwell and Thicket Priory. In addition two notable Yorkshire amateurs Edward Roper and Claude Leatham raised sides to play the Gentlemen. On some occasions military bands from, for example, the 1st Royal Dragoons entertained the crowd before play and during intervals at these fixtures. The Dragoons were themselves a cricketing opponent of the Gentlemen. Due to the custom of observing the Sabbath there were then no