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INTRODUCTION
very lightly. He was a better actor than cricketer, and a better companion than either. Old Clarke, in point of years, is well outside the limits of this book, since, although a great performer at Nottingham from 1816 onwards, he did not play at Lord's in the first-class game (as we say) until 1836, when he was thirty-seven, and was not considered good enough for the Players against the Gentlemen until ten years later. But in all respects save the date he belonged to the old traditions, bowling under-hand till the end. Caffyn, who was a member of his team, says of him, in his excellent book Seventy, Not Out:—
'From what I have read of the old Hambledon Club bowlers I should be inclined to think that Clarke was an exact counterpart of some of them. He was more than an ordinary under-hand bowler, as under-hand bowling was understood both in my time and at the present. He was by no means a bad bat, being a hard and clean hitter; but he was greatly handicapped in this department through having had the sight of his right eye destroyed at fives, at which game he excelled almost as much as at cricket. He would play this game for hours together, and made such hard work of it that when he leaned exhausted against the wall of the fives-court he often left a sort of silhouette of himself in perspiration on the wall. Clarke was above medium height and inclining to stoutness. He had a kind of half-grim, half-smiling expression, especially when he was getting wickets easily. The picture of him in The Cricket Field is an excellent one. He was always eager to get the best end of a wicket to bowl on. "I'll have this end,
