Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Three The All England Eleven ‘Many of our All-England XI matches were the pleasantest I ever took part in, for we were made much of by the supporters of the teams we played against, who generally did everything in their power to make us comfortable. . . . The rough wickets were often the most disagreeable item in the matches; some of the batting was of a very second rate nature.’ So wrote Daft in Kings of Cricket , adding that in a match in Cornwall, they got the local twenty-two out in 45 minutes! William Clarke, a bricklayer and a publican by trade, first played for Nottingham in June, 1816, aged 17, and in the next thirty years never missed a major Nottingham fixture. However, he did not play in a representative match at Lord’s until 1836 and did not become well-known nationally as a cricketer until the 1840s, his 19 The old Trent Bridge Inn, once William Clarke’s domain, shortly before its demolition. Its replacement, opened in May 1885, is rising behind. Daft was licensee of the new building from 1896 to 1898.