Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Peate, Hawke, Committee 91 place on the committee. Only when Mr Vaughan died in 1904 did Carter return to the Yorkshire committee. Carter had of course taken on more and more clerical and civic responsibilities in York as his time in that city progressed, and it could be that the Yorkshire committee had to take a back place in his mind for some years. Once Mr Vaughan had been elected, Carter may have felt that it not was proper to challenge Vaughan’s position. The election of Carter back onto the committee in 1904 was contentious. Over 100 Yorkshire members lived in the York district and 36 of them attended a special meeting on 3 June 1904. Mr Toone, the Yorkshire CCC secretary presided. He said that the Rev Carter had been nominated by Lord Hawke (himself a York member – though not present), and seconded by Mr J.W.Dixon, another York member. The expected eulogies of Carter were given by two of those present. But it was then said that York needed the best man who would see cricket played by ‘the rising generation. Mr Dixon as a member of the Yorkshire Council of Umpires would be in that position.’ Another speaker, reflecting perhaps some tensions between the Yorkshire Gentlemen and York Cricket Club, said he ‘did not think that the Yorkshire Gentlemen’s Club took the same interest in young players as the York Club did, and had sent out so many young cricketers’. So a vote was taken and ‘25 hands were held up for Rev Carter and 11 for Mr Dixon’. Perhaps his past popularity won the day for the York club may well have been more representative than the Gentlemen in the general area of York, and it was the York club that organised the York and District Challenge Cup for local teams. Carter may not have minded a contest. He had had past contests in fiercely contested elections to the York School Board so this one was minor in nature, but he was not to be opposed again, and remained on the committee until 1909 when having by then left York, he ceased to be the city representative. He served on the cricket sub-committee of the main Yorkshire committee from 1906 to 1908, and in 1909 was given the honour of a vice- presidency of the main Yorkshire Club. They were only five other vice-presidents and they included the Honourable F.S.Jackson and Tom Taylor, both distinguished players and future presidents