Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Gentlemen of Yorkshire 59 matches on Sundays, and some games were played on weekdays as well as regular Saturday fixtures. Carter will have had to have made skilful arrangements to mix his requirements to officiate at weddings with his desire to be on the cricket field of play. Lord Hawke in his Recollections and Reminiscences wrote: “When we were engaged in Yorkshire Gentlemen matches at York, he [Carter] and the Rev. E. B. Firth were often on the side. At that time they were both Minor Canons in the Cathedral, and perhaps in the middle of their innings one would retire to conduct afternoon service, and then come back to resume his place at the wicket.” Hawke must have been writing about the 1880s and 1890s sides for Firth was not born until 1863 and was 18 years younger than Carter. His father had also been Vicar of Malton and he (Firth the younger) also once played for Yorkshire – against MCC at Scarborough and perhaps by arrangement with Carter. It is not the purpose of this book to record all or indeed many of the scores, large or small, of runs made and wickets taken by Carter in social cricket but some matches and cricketing events can be mentioned in rough chronological order. In July 1877 the York Herald refers to a maiden match being played by Carter’s thenYork Parish, St Martin-cum-Gregory, thematch being against Castle Howard and eventually, in a two-innings game, being won by the Parish team by 14 runs. The York Herald writer refers to Carter as bowler and wicketkeeper (he took a stumping) and significantly that Carter ‘handling the leather [was] delivering his slow underhand twisters’. This is the earliest mention to Carter being an underarm bowler as opposed to his ferocious fast bowling of more youthful days. In 1877 Carter would have been aged 32 so a change in bowling action is understandable – but this was quite some change. It was also in July 1877 that the Gentlemen played a match against I Zingari at Escrick Park, south of York, the seat of Lord Wenlock. That annual fixture was one which the Gentlemen always played at Escrick at the invitation of that Lord Wenlock who died in 1880. The significance of that venue is that in 1932