William Clarke (24 December 1798 – 25 August 1856) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and team manager who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

from 1826 to 1855. He founded, managed and captained the All-England Eleven. He has been described as "one of certain figures who, in the history of cricket, stand like milestones along the way". Clarke was born at

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

and died at

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. In the late 1820s, he lost sight in one eye after being struck there by a fives ball on the court behind the Bell Inn in Nottingham.

First-class career

Clarke was originally a bricklayer by trade, but from his earnings as a bowler and an advantageous marriage he was able in 1837 to take up the traditional cricketer's trade of publican. He married Mary Chapman, the landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn, and they arranged for the land behind the inn to be made available. He opened the enclosed Trent Bridge cricket ground behind the inn and, from July 1840, it became the main venue for Nottinghamshire matches instead of the Forest racecourse, which was not enclosed. A stand at Trent Bridge has been named after Clarke. Clarke was a great spin bowler. He began his first-class career as

roundarm bowling In cricket, roundarm bowling is a bowling (cricket), bowling style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler (cricket), bowlers extend th ...

was being introduced but he decided to persist with the slow right-arm

underarm The axilla (: axillae or axillas; also known as the armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and ...

leg-spin he had learned as a boy. In his career, he took 795 wickets at the outstanding average of 10.06 in 143 known first-class matches with a best analysis of 9/29. He took five wickets in an innings 82 times and ten wickets in a match 26 times. He was a moderate batsman, scoring first-class 2133 runs at an average of 10.35 with a highest score of 75. He took 55 catches. Clarke played in the inaugural North v. South fixture at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

, this being his first appearance there. He is believed to be the only player ever to take a first-class

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

that included the same batsman twice (i.e., John Fagge, the hat-trick spanning both Kent innings).

Captaincy

Besides his bowling, Clarke's greatest attribute was his captaincy and leadership. He was an astute tactician and perhaps the sport's first truly tactical captain who could "think out" the opposition by means of planned field positions and rotation of his bowlers. Taking the reins from Joseph Dennis, Clarke captained the old Nottingham town club from 1830 and automatically succeeded to the captaincy of

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called th ...

when it was formed out of the town club in various stages between 1835 and 1840.

The All-England Eleven

In 1845, Clarke had become a ground bowler at Lord's as an MCC employee. Another ground bowler then was William Lillywhite. Clarke had a great season in 1845 and few batsmen could play him well. Although most MCC ground staff were satisfied with their pay, Clarke was not and in 1846 he decided to take matters into his own hands. In August 1846, when the MCC season finished, he formed the All-England Eleven (AEE) as a touring team of leading players to play matches at big city venues, mainly in the "unfashionable but prosperous" North of England.Birley, p.85. The team played three matches in 1846 against 22 of Sheffield, 18 of Manchester and 18 of Yorkshire. Clarke's team was indeed a top-class side worthy of its title and the matches in Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds were a huge success. Clarke's touring team continued for several years to showcase the best players of the day and the venture became very profitable, especially for the entrepreneurial Clarke, who was careful to pay his players more than MCC did to keep them interested. He kept the surplus for himself and became very wealthy. John Arlott wrote of him: "He was the first man to make a fortune out of cricket; he was, also, the first to see that a fortune was to be made out of it."''Arlott on Cricket'', edited by David Rayvern Allen, Fontana/Collins, 1985 edition, , p40. Because of its strength, the AEE generally played sides composed of twenty-two men, though these odds were reduced when opposed to such sides as Sheffield, Manchester, some county teams and the rival United All-England Eleven.

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