Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

formidable character and astute mind well attuned to money- making. In 1838, he opened the ground at Trent Bridge, having married in December 1837, as his second wife, Mrs Chapman, the landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn. Clarke would select and captain elevens of professional cricketers to tour the country, playing local sides composed of as many as eighteen or twenty-two to offset their lack of skill, and usually including a couple of professional bowlers, who would otherwise be members of the eleven, to provide stiff opposition to his batsmen. Assisted by the growth of the railway system, his professional eleven took good cricket all over Britain, and in due course spawned a number of off-shoots, rivals created by lesser entrepreneurs who were jealous of Clarke’s success. But membership of his eleven was the answer to a prayer for some professional cricketers: without him there would not have been enough cricket for them. County cricket was in its infancy: it was impossible for a professional to make a living out of county cricket until the sixties were well advanced. There were few matches, and plenty of amateurs often found places in county sides, to the exclusion of the pros. In 1856 Clarke died, to be succeeded as captain and secretary of the All England Eleven, as well as captain of Nottinghamshire, by George Parr. In 1859, Richard became a regular member of the All England Eleven. The principal eight or nine full-time All England players were employed full time, first by William Clarke and later by George Parr: in 1851, the side played as many as 34 three-day matches, starting on 5 May and ending on 16 October. They were, wrote Richard, continually on the move, often travelling through the night; while the spread of the railways facilitated the growth of cricket, there were still plenty of small towns and villages beyond the end of the line. He remembered the drive over moorland in the dead of night, after a match at Redruth in Cornwall; there was enough light from the coach and frequent flashes of lightning to observe a deep ditch on each side of the track. When at last they arrived at their destination, the match itself was played on a very rough wicket. George Parr showed his greatness by scoring 101 runs in the match. Tom Hayward, who opened with Daft, was struck on the head by the ball which went straight up in the air and was caught by the wicket-keeper who had the coolness to appeal! This was only the first of the rather frail Hayward’s disasters, as in the next match a throw-in by a fielder struck him on the heel. 20 The All England Eleven