A SUPREME BOWLER
By G. D. MARTINEAU
IN 1847 the game of cricket had arrived at a critical phase in its development. It had acquired many characteristics now familiar to us ; that is to say, there were three stumps and upright bats, umpires stood much where they do now and bowlers raised the arm to the shoulder. We can see now that it was a question of whether the " round-arm revolution " of the late 'twenties had done all that was likely to be done, or whether the game would aspire, through growing popularity, to the status of a national art. The man who was to provide the answer to this question had in fact taken the step which was to produce incalculable consequences. William Clarke's All England XI had appeared on the Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield, at the end of the previous August.
It was, of course, not evident at the time that anything remark- able had happened. William Clarke, a Nottingham bricklayer, could have given little promise of spectacular performances, being then nearly fifty and one-eyed into the bargain. The strange thing about it was that he had been playing for Notts ever since 1816, and yet had to wait thirty years before the M.C.C. applied for his services. In 1847 he and William Lillywhite (another bricklayer) bowled un- changed through both innings of the Gentlemen, taking all 20 wickets between them. It was quite early in his career that he lost the sight of an eye when playing fives, and this may have led people to under- " rate his value as a cricketer. Another deceptive factor was that his bowling remained under-arm, belonging to the old school of David Harris, delivered from above hip-level, with a curving flight and abrupt rise from the pitch, to which he added leg-spin. His par- ticular strength, however, consisted in an abnormal ability to size up an opponent and a situation ; for this served him both in cricket and in business_ " My success," he said, " depends not on what is called good length, but on the exact pitch, the one blind spot' according to the reach and style of the player."
Nicholas Wanostrocht, the gifted scholar of Flemish descent who played under the name of Felix (since cricket was too often associated with gambling for respectability), describes Clarke strolling round to watch opponents at practice and coming back to report: " I have summed them up, and they are worth (so much) an innings." His judgement was remarkably accurate, and his placing of the field for catches may be regarded as the forerunner of modem " traps " for batsmen's weak strokes. When Clarke acquired a wife and an inn, cricket was also enriched, for, after becoming landlord of "The Bell," he opened the Trent Bridge Ground, where the First Test Match in a series is usually played today. Every step in his career gives evidence of his shrewdness and self-confidence. When the All Eng-
land XI was fairly launched, Dark, the proprietor of Lord's, criticised his arrangement of a match at Newcastle, where there was then only weak opposition. " Never you mind," replied Clarke. " I shall play sides strong or weak, with numbers or with bowlers given, and shall play all over the country too—mark my words—and it will make good for cricket and for your trade too." He was referring to Dark's bat-and-ball business, which grew rapidly.
Felix's drawing of the All England XI, as it was in 1847, is still to be seen in the Pavilion at Lord's. There stands William Clarke, wearing his grey top-hat and somewhat parsonic expression, with the artist close to him. Away to his left are old Lillywhite, in almost funereal garments, and the slim, graceful figure of Fuller Pilch. On the other flank, most prominent in the group, is the mighty Alfred Mynn, dwarfing his neighbours as he does his bat, and one from the end is George Parr in a sort of sombrero. The others are Joseph Guy, Martingell, W. Denison, Dean, 0. C. Pell, Hillyer, Dorrinton and Sewell, making a total of fourteen. This company, and others who joined it later, journeyed about usually by coach—for railway travel was in its infancy—as the fixture-list grew yearly, until they were playing over thirty matches a season, and they had often to bump along through the night over impossible roads. The rate of pay was -between £4 and £6 a match, which earned Clarke the name of being hard-fisted and led eventually to the establishment of a rival formation. Meanwhile, in all this galaxy of talent, the deeds of the veteran bowler shone with astonishing brilliance. Profiting vastly by the attitude of contempt with which batsmen tended to regard under-arm bowling, he proceeded to take terrific toll. It must be admitted that many of his victims were " rabbits," that the All England XI sometimes played against double their number, and that Clarke seldom took himself off. Even so, an annual average of 34o wickets for the seven seasons from 1847 to 1853 is a formidable figure.
A poor fieldsman and with small pretensions to batting skill, he was an autocrat of whom endless tales are told. Young amateurs, facetious cabmen and unwary railway porters were victims of his quick temper and crude humour. After old Tom Box ran him out, he put on his pads to go in first, vowing never to go in again within ten of such a fool. His Practical Hints on Cricket are chiefly valu- able for the remarks on bowling, which insist on the adaptation of length to the batsman and the state of the ground as well as on the appointment of school cricket-coaches who possess a good de- livery. " Why, a person who recommends a wild scrambling bowler to teach cricket ought to be took up under the Cruelty to Animals Act." His warning on noting a batsman's fault, " We shall have a haccident, sir, soon, I know we shall," has been widely quoted.
No other bowler of any period has been accorded the compliment of a special treatise on how to play him. Felix on How to Play Clarke provides the most eloquent testimony to his boundless guile. Felix was once hailed as " Clarke's master," after playing an innings of 54 against him for Kent at Canterbury. The return match at Trent Bridge proved the mastery incomplete, for Felix, playing to the gallery, took guard four yards in front of his wicket, and the old bowler dismissed him for nought. In 1852 Clarke's luck seemed to desert him. John Wisden, the Sussex midget, seceded from the All England XI, with Dean, John Lillywhite and others who objected to Clarke's grasping and tyrannical ways, and formed the United England XI ; and towards the end of the year the old bowler fell and broke his arm. Yet it was in the following season that he crowned his career by taking 476 wickets, and there is nothing in Wisden to show that this record has ever been equalled.
It was true, however, that his day was nearly done. He died three summers later, having taken a wicket with the last ball he ever bowled. Clarke's influence on the game has been lasting. More than his bowling feats, his organisation of cricket tours had the effect of firing youthful imagination far and wide. A single instance will suffice. In 1854 he brought his famous team down to play against twenty-two of West Gloucestershire at Bristol, and all the countryside thronged to watch old Clarke capture eighteen wickets. Among the spectators was a six-year-old boy, who never forgot how the veteran's figure stood out as the child gazed across the field from his mother's side. The name of this hero-worshipper was William Gilbert Grace.
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