Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

which Carter made 11 and Yorkshire lost by seven wickets. Curiously Carter never himself became a member of MCC. There can be no doubt that if he had wanted to become a member, then he would have been elected. With potential sponsors like Sir Charles Legard, Lord Londesborough and later Lord Hawke, all of whom were MCC presidents there can be absolutely no doubt that Carter would have been elected. His younger brother, Arthur, was elected to MCC membership in 1879. In 1877 the Sheffield Daily Telegraph announced on 30 May the Yorkshire side to play Middlesex at Lord’s on 4 June, another match under the auspices of Lord Londesborough. Carter was placed at the head of the list, but it was not specifically stated that he would be captain. In the event he did not play at all, presumably prevented from doing so by clerical duties, and Ephraim Lockwood was probably captaining the side. It would be September before Carter would play in a Yorkshire county game. 3: versus I Zingari at Scarborough, August 1877 4: versus MCC at Scarborough, August 1877 The Yorkshire Committee for 1877 was this year expanded from eleven to ‘Sixteen Gentlemen of the County’ ( Wisden 1878) but these Gentlemen were still largely based in the Sheffield area. Carter told Old Ebor in Talks with Old Yorkshire Cricketers that ‘for several years I got up the Yorkshire XI for the Scarboro’ Carnival’. Lord Hawke in his autobiography specifically stated that Carter also chose the Yorkshire eleven for the I Zingari matches. So though he had not played any county games for Yorkshire in the season up to the time of the 1877 Festival, it is not surprising, with Carter’s York connections, and good season with the Gentlemen of Yorkshire, to see his name on the scorecards for both the I Zingari and MCC games. In their long history dating back to 1845, I Zingari have only played 17 first-class games, six of which were against Yorkshire (all at Scarborough), two against Australian tourists at Scarborough, and eight against the Gentlemen of England with six of those matches being at First-class matches 73