Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Old Ebor, Hawke, Thwing 97 accompanied himself …. He was one of the best tellers in broad Yorkshire I ever came across; indeed he would tell stories with any man from anywhere.” The players, whatever they may have thought of the social side of the day, were also there for another purpose – as recipients of talent money given out by Lord Hawke for their performances during the season. Whether they were always happy with the payments given, or knew what their fellow players received is not recorded. But this September day was always to be an example of feudal benevolence and Carter was glad to be a part of it. The Tatler magazine used to report on this social occasion with great approval, and A.J.Webbe the Middlesex captain was another to follow Hawke’s example. Thwing Meantime, in the midst of these annual visits to Wighill, came September 1907, when Carter was offered a move to the rural parish, at Thwing. The offer was accepted and the move made in April 1908. At a huge farewell gathering at St William’s College, York, he was given a purse containing £230, equivalent to about £23,000 today, and an illuminated booklet with the names of the subscribers. The Dean of York made the presentation and as reported in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph ‘remarked upon Mr Carter’s extraordinary and consistent cheerfulness even when - as he had been recently - suffering what seemed in some cases to be the penalty of an athletic life’. Other speeches were made by the Bishop of Beverley, Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese, Mr J.G. Butcher KC, formerly MP for York, and Alderman Agar for the City Corporation. The Reverend Carter said little more than it would be a wrench to leave York ‘after so many years of pleasant parochial work’. That was really quite an understatement. The value of the living at Thwing was put at £556, quite a considerable sum for a rural parish. It had become vacant through the death in 1907 of the previous incumbent, William Felton, who had been Rector since 1885. Thwing is more than 30 miles east