Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

and not seven new representatives from other parts of Yorkshire and were not persuaded that the Yorkshire Gentlemen should have specific representation. When the Yorkshire county AGM was held on 28 December 1882 Carter found himself elected to represent the city of York and not just his specific club of Gentlemen. He remained until 1887 a city representative on the Yorkshire Committee, and as one of a minority who were unable to overturn in any significant way the dominance of the Sheffield contingent. The report on the Club for 1886, written in Wisden 1887 starts: “The Committee consisted of nineteen gentlemen – Leeds, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Bradford, Hull, Halifax, and York having each one representative.” It was clearly not thought necessary to say that the other 12 members all came from Sheffield. The 1886 first-class matches were spread as to six at Sheffield, two at Huddersfield, and one each at Dewsbury, Bradford, Leeds and Scarborough. Progress in moving the centre of gravity in Yorkshire cricket in a more northerly direction was slow, and never really reachedYork. Travel fromYork to Sheffield for meetings and then travel back to York would take up a large chunk of any working day, and Carter knew that his local friend, Martin Hawke, the captain of the Yorkshire team could easily take his place in 1887– and that is what then happened. Carter may also for a while have lost some interest in the county club. He was not present at an important meeting in Leeds on 10 December 1891 to discuss reorganisation of the county club, and further representation on the committee from York, Scarborough and the North Riding. At that meeting the Yorkshire Gentlemen were represented by the Rev E.B.Firth and York Cricket Club by its secretary Mr F.H.Vaughan. Carter may have become weary of the machinations though the Reverend Firth did his best to assert that another giant monopoly, this time representing the city of Leeds, should not be allowed to dominate the Yorkshire committee. This is of course what may have occurred 100 years later. It was only in 1893 that further reorganisation led to Sheffield losing its majority on the committee. When then in 1894 Hawke was appointed as a Vice-President of the County Club, it was Mr Vaughan who took up the vacant Peate, Hawke, Committee 90