Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

62 Gentlemen of Yorkshire game being against Sussex, and the Cheltenham Chronicle gave far more attention to the ‘Grand Complimentary Banquet to the Gloucestershire Eleven’ than it did to the cricket. Carter had to respond to the toast to the Yorkshire eleven having been introduced by a Mr Townsend (possibly Frank Townsend, the Gloucestershire amateur), as having ‘a claimupon their adoration, and everything else they like to bestow upon him for he was a double blue’. The toast was received with ‘musical honours’ and Carter ‘who was loudly cheered’ in responding spoke of a ‘weary six hours ride between Yorkshire and Cheltenham’ - how much longer or shorter would it take in 2018? He then addressed what was obviously a matter of some contention in the 1870s, for he “had heard a good deal about the impropriety of clergymen playing at cricket in elevens; that he regarded as an exceedingly poor idea. He regarded it as an honour for an eleven to include the name of a clergyman- [I] myself never object to a clerical 51 not out (cheers).” Subsequent speakers hastened to ensure him that the playing of sport, and especially cricket, was always to be welcomed. The Gloucestershire match was drawn on 24 August – spoilt by rain and four days later, on 28 August 1878, Carter was at Harewood House for what may in hindsight have been a very significant fixture. This was a two-day match between Harewood and the Yorkshire Gentlemen. Harewood batted first, and on the fall of an early wicket when Carter was bowling there entered onto the field a lanky yet confident schoolboy, aged just 18, the Honourable M.B.Hawke on holiday from Eton and fresh from playing Harrow and Winchester. His father, another clergyman, was the then Lord Hawke, a title he had unexpectedly inherited, who lived at nearby Wighill Park. This may have been the first time that Carter had seen Martin Hawke and the meeting would not initially have been for long for the scorecard shows that Hawke was bowled Carter for two. In the second innings Hawke made 29. Maybe then some inklings stirred in Carter’s mind that here would be a useful acquisition for the Yorkshire Gentlemen – and maybe even for Yorkshire. This match is not mentioned in