Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Gentlemen of Yorkshire 65 Carter in proposing a toast to the ladies spoke of the ‘great debt of gratitude to the many fair hands who had worked assiduously in tastefully arranging the stalls’. His attitude to the role of women in society was much the same as the vast majority of the clergy in Victorian Britain. By 1889 Carter had become Vice-President of the York Club, but his main interest in social and competitive cricket always was with the Yorkshire Gentlemen. The York club continued to thrive and in time played the Yorkshire Gentlemen. In 1892 it played 27 matches during the summer, of which 14 were won and the funds were good enough to provide a new pavilion In 1883 Carter again took part in the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s southern tour, and this time the opponents were the Royal Artillery when he took six wickets; Esher, when he made 73; the Household Brigade; and the Royal Engineers. For once, Carter was not the most notable cleric in the Gentlemen’s side. The star was the Reverend Charles Molesworth Sharpe, who had once played for Yorkshire in 1875, but was now confined to social cricket and who indulged himself with 114 not out against the Royal Artillery. Carter may have been instrumental in that season in persuading the considerable Yorkshire bowler George Freeman to play occasionally for the Gentlemen, with Freeman taking 13 wickets against Harrow Wanderers. When a Yorkshire County Club eleven played 16 of the Gentlemen, Freeman took seven wickets of the county eleven to which George Harrison for the county responded with at one stage nine Gentlemen’s wickets for six runs! The year 1885 still saw Carter playing good cricket for the Gentlemen. In July, against the Northern Regimental District he made 85 not out (batting at nine) and took six wickets in his opponents’ two innings. Noticeably his once young protege the Honourable M.B.Hawke occasionally captained the Gentlemen with Carter in the side as happened in the Lincoln Cricket Week when the Gentlemen played Lincoln Lindum. In 1886 and 1887 Carter though now aged over 40 still thrived on the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s southern tour against military sides. In 1886 he scored 24 and 72 (batting at nine) against Aldershot, and