William Clarke was born at Nottingham, 24th December, 1798, so that he was in his 48th year when he started the All-England Eleven. His height was 5 ft. 9 in.; weight, about 14 stone. He appeared, for North v. South, at Lord's in 1836, when he was 37 years old; but he made little impression then. Twenty years previously his name appears in the Nottingham Eleven, showing that he must have played at a very early age; but the advent of the All- England Eleven was his opportunity, and he bowled with great success until the year of his death in 1856. Like Lillywhite, he was well advanced in years before he made his mark, and it was the occasion that created the man. The success which had attended such fast bowlers as Sir F. Bathurst and A. Mynn, fast roundarm, and Messrs. Fellows and Marcon, fast underhand, had created a rage for fast roundarm bowling, and slow underhand had been completely neglected. Clarke saw that, and his accurate length, precision of pitch, and curl from the leg to the off, completely baffled the batsmen. Most of them were in two minds about playing back or running out, and he generally managed to bowl them before they got out of their indecision. But like most bowlers who are also captains, he had the weakness of keeping himself on too long. Against Pilch, and one or two others who collared him at times, he would try just another over, which invariably did more harm than good. Success brought him the usual number of followers, who jumped to the conclusion that the secret of his bowling success lay in his pace, not in his length. Slow underhand bowling became the rage for a year or two, and clubs were just as diligent in practising slows without length, as they had been in cultivating pace without length.
The appearance of the All-England Eleven at Bristol against twenty-two of West Gloucestershire, in June,
