Charles Cyril Clarke (22 December 1910 – 6 November 1997) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played first-class cricket for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

from 1929 to 1933 and for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in 1947. Clarke was born at

Burton-on-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The d ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. He made his debut for Derbyshire against Lancashire in July 1929, but played little part as the match was abandoned as a draw. He played three more matches that year and for the next four years played about 5 matches in consecutive sets each year, either in May or August. From 1935 until the Second World War, he played minor county cricket for

. During the war he played a match for Southern Command against the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...

. He played in the second XI for Sussex in 1946 and in 1947 played three first-class matches for Sussex in which his batting average was 6.2. Clarke was a right-hand batsman and played 43 innings in 28 first-class matches with an average of 11.80 and a top score of 35 not out. Clarke moved to

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

where he played and coached. He earned the nickname "the Conjuror", because he was magic on the field. Later he ran a white-elephant shop.Wisden Obituaries in 1997
/ref> Clarke died at

Carnforth Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 reco ...

, Lancashire at the age of 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Charles Cyril 1910 births 1997 deaths Derbyshire cricketers Sussex cricketers English cricketers Staffordshire cricketers Cricketers from Burton upon Trent British Army personnel of World War II British Army soldiers Military personnel from Staffordshire