In summer 1824 William Clarke — eighteen years old, a Nottingham bricklayer — joined the Nottingham Cricket Club at the Forest ground. Clarke would become the most influential English cricket entrepreneur of the mid-nineteenth century: founder of the All-England Eleven (1846), proprietor of Trent Bridge (1838), and the leading slow underarm bowler of his generation. His 1824 arrival at Nottingham is the start of that career.
Clarke had been born at Nottingham in 1798 and had left school at fourteen to work as a bricklayer. By 1824 he had begun playing cricket at village level. His arrival at the Nottingham Cricket Club in summer 1824 — recorded in the club's surviving membership ledger — gave him his first organised cricket. He played as a slow underarm bowler with extraordinary control of flight and pace.
1798
Clarke born at Nottingham
1824
Joins Nottingham CC
1838
Opens Trent Bridge
1846
Founds the All-England Eleven
1856
Clarke dies
The starting point of one of the most influential cricket careers of the nineteenth century.
William Clarke is one of the central figures in the development of Victorian professional cricket. His 1824 arrival at Nottingham CC is the conventional starting line of that arc.
n/a
1811-07-04
The 1811 Lord's season was the leanest of the Middle Ground years. With the Napoleonic blockade at its tightest, willow scarce, professionals diverted to militia service and the betting public's purses thin, only fourteen major matches were played at Lord's all summer. The 1811 season is the clearest measure of cricket's wartime contraction.
Officers vs Civilians
1812-12-15
By the close of 1812 cricket was being played regularly in both Madras and Bombay — the earliest documented fixtures in either Presidency. Garrison officers and civilian East India Company servants ran the matches; the Madras Gazette and Bombay Courier preserved the earliest scoresheets. The Calcutta game (documented 1804) had been joined by all three Presidency capitals.
Kent vs MCC
1813-09-09
On 9-10 September 1813 Kent played the MCC at the Vine, Sevenoaks — the first post-war major match at the historic Kent ground and the start of the Vine's revival as a regular major venue. The Vine had hosted little major cricket since 1808; the September 1813 fixture marked its return to the front rank.