Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Gentlemen of Yorkshire 68 brother Arthur. Carter, when he played, turned out for teams of lesser strength than the Gentlemen as when he appeared in 1895 for the North Riding Asylum against the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. One of his last matches for the Yorkshire Gentlemen could have been in 1896 (now aged 51) when as an opener he was bowled first ball against a military side, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Perhaps the last matches were in August 1900. He opened the batting against Heworth Revellers and scored 37 in an hour without giving a chance. The Gentlemen were bowled out for 102. Then keeping wicket he took a stumping and a catch as the Revellers made only 53. The Revellers followed on and this time Carter bowled out two players, and his side still won by an innings. He plainly still had formidable talent. A few days later he played again for the Gentlemen, his last recorded match for the Gentlemen that this writer can find - and impetuosity, or lack of speed between the wickets, may have got the better of him, for he was run out for 23 against the Royal Artillery at Scarborough. He had played for the Gentlemen of Yorkshire side over a span of 36 years from 1864, giving pleasure to many as well as to himself. Because of a pavilion fire the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s earliest score books were all destroyed but the Gentlemen’s historian Malcolm Watson has been able to piece together statistics recording 72 innings by Carter over the period 1881 to 1900 in which he scored 1631 runs with a highest score of 85 at an average of 25.09. Over the same period he took 86 wickets at an average of 18.30. Other sporting connections in York The enormous breadth of work for many organisations in York is recorded in the previous chapter but Carter still found time to aid the York sporting world, and with a Blue for rowing he was much in demand to assist those who favoured activity on the River Ouse. In 1877 he became an inaugural member of the Ouse Boating Club and speaking at the club’s first annual dinner that year he urged members to ‘observe discipline and avoid jealousies’. Though a popular and avuncular speaker, Carter appears to have been strong on discipline and perhaps a hard taskmaster on those