Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Still Carter had played three first-class matches in a row, something he would never do again, so he may have gone back to York clerical duties both contented and regretful as to what could have happened in his sporting career. 6: versus Australia at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in July 1878 It would have been a thrill to have played in this match that attracted 15,000 spectators on the first day and another 8,000 on the second day to seeYorkshire triumph by ninewickets.Yorkshire had played the Australians a month earlier at Huddersfield, and only five of that Yorkshire side now played at Bramall Lane – it would have been six but for an injury to Tom Emmett. Still a turn- around of five players was somewhat startling and reminiscent of modern cricket in the rare games that counties play against tourists when the better county players are ‘rested’. J.G.Boden, a wicketkeeper played his only game for Yorkshire, and others who played for the county with limited experience were C.W. Landon and Francis Whatmuff (alternatively Whatmough). Yorkshire would have been thrilled to bowl Australia out for 88, and edged their own way to 167, Carter, alas, being bowled by his ex-Victoria colleague, Frank Allan for nought. As on the second day Australia only then made 103 Yorkshire reached their target of 26 without Carter being called upon to bat again. Carter was Yorkshire captain for this match (as confirmed by Lord Hawke), making him one of the select few Yorkshiremen who have captained the county to success over the Australians– there have been six wins in 55 matches. The only other Yorkshire players to have captainedYorkshire to a win againstAustralia have been Lord Hawke (three times), George Ulyett and, famously, F.S.Trueman in 1968, when Yorkshire won by an innings. An Australian writer wrote that in Carter’s match ‘the fielding of the Yorkshiremen was very good, the reverend gentleman especially doing some first-rate work’. Another Australian wrote of Carter that he would have been remembered as having played for Victoria in 1869 and: “He is not as stout as he was then, but nevertheless he is hale and hearty, though perhaps not quite so dexterous with the willow.” Yorkshire did not beat theAustralians First-class matches 76