Page:The Hambledon Men (1907).djvu/238

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180
THE HAMBLEDON MEN

weak points of a batsman quicker, perhaps, than any bowler that ever lived . . .

'The veteran would always insist on going in to bat in one particular place—two wickets down, I think it was—but in a match in which George Parr, instead of himself, was captain, he was put down several places lower on the list. However, when his usual turn came, he stepped out, padded and gloved, and the batsman who was next to go in, arriving at the wicket at the same time, was obliged to return to the pavilion. But as years went on, the old gentleman dropped down to the last place of all; and being run out once by the batsman at the other end (old Tom Box), when it came to the second innings he put on his pads to go in first, swearing he would never again go in within ten of the fool who had run him out in the previous innings!'

Old Clarke has been dead fifty years. He took a wicket with the last ball he bowled. I wonder how many cricketers have done that.