by A. W. Pullin
The Yorkshire County Cricket Year-Book gives 1865 as the year of the Rev. E. S. Carter's first appearance in county cricket, but it was not until the early 'Seventies that he was able to keep in close touch with Yorkshire cricket. Even then he was not able to play regularly with the county owing to his clerical duties, and his chief connection eventually had to be restricted to the matches at the Scarborough Festival. A man of greater "all-roundness" probably never stepped on to a cricket-field than the Vicar of St Michael-le-Belfrey. As a batsman he was well in the first flight; as a bowler he was originally very fast, and latterly—for he has played in serious cricket within the last two or three years—he could make himself into a fast high arm, a slow round arm, or an underhand lob-bowler. In the latter capacity he has had some remarkable successes; and "them there Carters" have been the terror of batsmen in the Ridings for many years.
One incident of his ability as a wicket-keeper may be given now. It was on Saturday, August 16, 1890—when Mr Carter was forty-five years of age. Playing for Yorkshire Gentlemen v. Heworth Revellers, at York, he performed the extraordinary feat of stumping three batsmen with three successive balls, and in all caused the retirement of seven opponents. The ground was sticky, and the bowler, W. Wisker, was a medium left-hander with a good break from leg. The last of the three victims, in order to avoid the fate of his two predecessors, rushed out of the ground to meet the ball on the full pitch, but the bowler saw his object, and pitching it short, both bowler and stumper were credited with the "hat-trick."
Now for a few bowling feats. When a curate at Ealing, in 1874, playing for Ealing against Willesden, Mr Carter bowled 9 wickets in 8 overs for no runs, his analysis being 8 overs, 8 maidens, o runs, 9 wickets. This wonderful feat was performed with "Carter's expresses." Seventeen years afterwards, to the day or the day after, playing for Cliffe Hall against Middleton Lodge, Darlington, with his " lob-twisters," he secured 7 wickets for 1 run, and in two days took 15 wickets for 25 runs. In 1875, playing for Ealing against the M.C.C., on May 22, at Ealing, he and a Mr Mumford got the M.C.C. out for only 7 runs; and, by the way, in this year Mr Carter scored 105 off the bat for the Yorkshire Gentlemen against a strong eleven got together by Mr Leatham.
Other bowling feats with his "expresses" include 7 wickets for 9 runs, 9 wickets for 9 runs, and 9 wickets for 8 runs, in 1871; 7 wickets for 9 runs in 1872; 7 wickets for 2 runs, and 7 for 8 runs, in 1874; and so on. Going backward, in 1865, though, owing to an accident, having to bat with one hand against Luke Greenwood's bowling, against Doncaster Peripatetics at York, Mr Carter made 26 and 47; while in the same year against Notts Gentlemen's C.C., at Southwell, he had to bowl slows owing to lameness, and Notts were out for 28 and 36. In Notts' second innings the first wicket fell for 30; all were out for 36. Again, in 1877, when playing for Yorkshire Gentlemen against Hornsea, his left hand was disabled when he had made 8, but he went on batting with one hand, and proved top scorer with 58. Many other instances of skill and pluck might be given, but these must suffice. They show that in the Rev. E. S. Carter the doctrine of muscular Christianity has had an exceedingly capable exponent.
"I once played at Thirsk for Twenty-Two of the District v. the All England Eleven, and threw a ball 117 yards. Tarrant said it was with the wind. George Anderson said, 'Try throwing it back the other way,' and I threw it the same distance. I threw it 11o yards in the Oxford University Sports, but didn't win — a man called Mitchell, I think, beating me with 112. I don't suppose I could throw 80 now.
"It was on the Lyndhurst ground that I caught the famous hitter, C. I. Thornton, in the long-field at a distance of 120 yards from the wicket—he having previously hit a ball over my head.
"In my best days as a batsman I was supposed to be particularly strong on the off-side, and the following story pays me that compliment. 'Young Tom' Hearne, son of 'Old Tom,' was our groundsman and bowler at Ealing, and afterwards, till last year, when he was appointed head groundsman at Lord's, was engaged in that capacity at Wellington College. When Mr Alan Gray, brother of an ex-Lord Mayor of York, and now Dr Gray, organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, went to Wellington as Professor of Music, he said one day to Tom, 'Did you know Mr Carter at Ealing?' Tom replied, 'If you mean the Rev. E. S. Carter, I knew him well.' 'Could he play cricket?' asked Mr Gray. Tom's reply was, 'You drop him a short 'un to the off, and see what he'll do with it.'"
Mr Carter's stories are even better than his cricket. They tumble over each other in rich profusion, but room must be found for all.
"Four years ago I was playing in a match at Cherry Burton on the beautiful ground of Mr D. F. Burton. In the opposing eleven was a man with whom I had played some thirty years previous. I asked him if he could play as well as ever, and he replied, 'I think I can play them tiddliwinks of yours' (he had seen me bowling lobs). He came in when I happened to be bowling; and I bowled him almost immediately, the ball twisting between his legs and hitting the middle stump—' the centre prod' as it used to be called in the country in my youth. 'Well, I'm dashed !' he exclaimed. I replied, 'I don't know whether you are that, but I know you are out.' The batsman at my end, a well-known East Riding professional, said to his outgoing colleague, 'I'm surprised at a man of your experience being beaten by a thing of that sort.' The next over that I bowled the 'pro.' was at the other end, and with the first or second ball I got him in exactly the same way. As he walked away, looking thoroughly disgusted, hitting his leg with his bat, and muttering to himself, I could not resist the temptation to repeat to him his own words, 'Well, I am surprised at a man of your experience being beaten by a thing of that sort.'
"I remember once at Scarborough taking a stroll round the ground during the luncheon interval, and coming to a knot of workmen who were engaged in some building operations. At first I could not understand their conversation. 'What kind of a player is H. E. Rhodes 1' 'Oh, he has played for the M.C.C. and Yorkshire; he must be a good 'un.' 'Then who's C. W. Landon?' 'Oh, he's a good useful player.' 'E. S. Carter 1' 'He's all right; he plays for Yorkshire Gentlemen.' 'Dash it! I have drawn Leatham; I'll sell him to onybody for 2d.' It then dawned upon me what the men meant: they were drawing a sweepstakes on our individual scores. The man who wanted to sell Leatham for 2d. did G. A. B. an injustice, for he scored, I think, 19 not out.
"Mr A. N. Hornby used to bring an Eleven, including Crossland, to play the Yorkshire Gentlemen. When I went in first against Crossland, Mr Hornby said, 'Now, Crossland, the gentleman that has come in is a clergyman. Don't use any hard language—you'll shock his feelings.' Well, Crossland bowled away as quiet as a lamb, until I got 45 or 46, when he bowled me with a snorting shooter that knocked my wicket to pieces. Crossland could then keep quiet no longer, for he blurted out, 'I downed his old pulpit for him that time.'" This story, the writer may mention, has often been narrated, with a good deal of embroidered diction, at the expense of Crossland and various cricketing clerics, but this is the first time it has actually been located.
"Here is another good parson's story. We were playing at Oulton (a village near Pontefract), and there were four or five parsons in the team. A. J. Irving and Smith-Dorrien went in first, and I think got about 40 or 50 each. Then went in Hamilton, an old Cambridge man, who got about 40, and after him H. M. Sims, who hit the first four balls he received out of the field (it was a narrow boundary). The bowler then relieved his feelings by the remark, 'Nah, then, is there ony more o' theease meenisters to come in 1 I didn't come 'ere, tha knows, to laake at knur and spell.'
"Mention of the Rev. H. M. Sims reminds me that he once played for Yorkshire at Sheffield, and turned out in his beautiful new Cambridge blue jacket to field at cover-point. As if by a concerted signal, the cry went up all round the ground, 'Tak thi jacket off!' He took no notice. By-and-by a ball went to him, and he misfielded it and it went to the boundary. Then came the cry louder than before, 'Nah, will ta tak thi jacket off!' I have often been struck with the ready wit and keen appreciation of cricket crowds, especially those at Sheffi
eld. The only time I played against the Australians there I was fielding alternately at cover-point and square-leg. I was standing near the scoring-box at deep square-leg, and twenty minutes passed before the ball came to me. It came along with a beautiful hop, and I promptly returned it, whereupon a voice in the crowd shouted, 'Here endeth the first lesson.' And with a series of laughs and ripples, 'Here endeth the first lesson' went all round the enclosure.
"It may be as well to mention, apropos of this exclamation of the Sheffield crowd, that I was not the young curate of whom the story is told that after exceptional success in some big match on a Saturday, announced at the close of the First Lesson in church on the following day,' Here endeth the first innings'; though the story has been frequently credited to me.
"Tom Hearne and I founded the Ealing Club, in which place I had my first curacy. There was one match against Dr Gay's Eleven, in which I said I could not play owing to my clerical duties. At lunch-time Tom Hearne sent an urgent message pressing me to come, as they had nearly all their wickets down, and were doing very badly. I went to the field and arrived just as the ninth wicket fell. I was just in time to go in, and added 27 not out for the last wicket. Then I went on to bowl—I bowled very fast in those days— and got nearly all their wickets, and we won by about 15 runs. Pooley and Street of the Surrey team were on the defeated side, and the first-named said to Tom Hearne, 'I tell thee what, Tom, the next time we come to play here, we shall come on Sunday, and then that parson chap will be in church.'
"1 played ten or eleven years ago for a Clerical Eleven of England against Lord Lewisham's Eleven, at Lewisham. A lady, who with her daughter went to see the match, was stated to have said, 'I do hope that I shall see the clergymen bat.' On arriving on the ground the daughter said, 'Oh, mamma, how lucky! The clergymen are in.' 'How do you know, dear?' asked the mother. 'Oh, don't you see they have got their surplices on.' Of course the clergymen in question were the umpires in their white coats. This story afterwards appeared in 'Punch.'
"No one could get a man into a trap better than W. G. Once at Cheltenham for Yorkshire, I went out to field as a substitute. Eph. Lockwood came in, took his block, and then looked round the field. The late Fred. Grace was fielding at deep square-leg, and Ephraim took a second look at him. W. G. said to me, 'Carter, you saw old Mary Ann look round to see where Fred, is standing. I'll make him drop one into his mouth.' Sure enough, Ephraim hit the ball right into Fred.'s hands: I think it was the first ball —certainly it was in the first over.
"Then old W. G. victimised me by actually catching and bowling me in front of cover-point. I had hit three balls past cover-point; the fourth was a similar ball, and W. G., after delivering it, ran right round in front of cover-point, and brought off the catch. It was a cool and daring thing to do, but it came off all right. In the same match, the ground being very wet, W. G. returned the easiest of chances to Tom Emmett, who dropped it. Tom thereupon threw his cap down in the mud and trampled on it savagely, and giving the ball a kick, sent it to the boundary, and credited the Champion with 4. Tom spent the rest of the day in apologising to W. G.
"When I was curate in Ealing I used to go to Lord's whenever I could, if Yorkshire was playing. One day I said to Tom Emmett, 'What do you think of this W. G. Grace who is making such big scores 1' (He was just coming into his best.) Tom replied, 'It's all very well against this South Country bowling. Let him come up to Sheffield and play against me and George [Freeman], and we'll show him something different.' A few days afterwards, July 26, 1869, the North played the South at Sheffield, and W. G. got 122 in his first innings, with Emmett and Freeman bowling. When Tom came to Lord's shortly afterwards I said to him, 'Well, Tom, you've had him at Sheffield: what do you think of him now 1' Tom replied very seriously, 'Mr Carter, I call him a nonsuch: he ought to be made to play with a littler bat.'
"Talking of Tom Emmett, who was really and genuinely witty, reminds me of a very amusing incident which occurred at Sheffield. I was playing on the Brammall Lane ground for the county. Yorkshire were in the field. Tom Armitage, who was not a skeleton, and Louis Hall, who was scarcely a Falstaff," were running after the same ball. Tom called to me, ' Mr Carter, there goes Law and Gospel.' 'What do you mean, Tom 1' I asked. 'You ought to know, being a parson,' he replied; 'Shadow and Substance!' I was glad to find that his theology was so sound.
"An amusing story was told me about Tom Emmett, which, if true, shows how his wit did not desert him even under most uninspiring circumstances. He was on his way to Australia with the team taken out by Lord Harris. Tom was a bad sailor; Lord Harris was a good one. During the crossing of the Bay of Biscay poor Tom was prostrate with mal de mer; but one fine morning when they had rounded Cape St Vincent and got into comparatively smooth water, Tom crawled timidly up the companion-ladder, and halted with his face just high enough to see over the ship's side, to observe his lordship enjoying a cigarette on deck. His lordship opened the conversation, ' Glad to see you out, Tom; but you don't look very well.' 'No, my lord,' replied Tom, 'I don't feel very bright.' Then, having a look overboard he exclaimed with a sigh, 'I don't think they've had the heavy roller on, my lord.'
"Tom Emmett, wag though he was, had a well-balanced disposition, and knew how to take care of himself and of the team too. I was specially pleased once to hear him rebuke a gentleman who, at one of the Yorkshire matches, wanted to stand him and others a drink. Tom refused, and said quietly but firmly, 'I should be obliged to you if you would not tempt the players.'
"On another occasion, at Scarborough, Yorkshire had put G. A. B. Leatham in the team instead of the late Joe Hunter. The crowd resented this, and 'barracked' Leatham in a most disconcerting way. Tom Emmett at last walked up to where the noise was being made, and addressing the crowd, said, 'Nah, lads, Scarborough has alius had a reputation for being respectable. Don't loss your character.' After this exhortation not a word was said.
"I remember one occasion on which the old Yorkshire wicket-keeper, the late Ned Stephenson, had the laugh turned against him in a most amusing way at Malton. George Freeman was batting, and owing to a misunderstanding he and his co-batsman met in the centre of the pitch, and Stephenson having had the ball returned to him, flourished it over the bails and said to Freeman, who was the victim, 'Why don't you run in, George 1' As Freeman had no chance of getting to the wicket in time, he walked away in disgust towards the pavilion, which was at an angle behind the wicket. On looking round, however, he saw that Stephenson had neglected the elementary duty of breaking the wicket, so he coolly walked back to resume his innings. 'But you're out,' said the dumfoundered Stephenson. 'Oh no, Ned,' was the reply; 'you forgot to knock the bails off!' George then went on and scored over 100, making one big hit over the Malton Station into the cab stand. [This incident is also referred to in the Freeman reminiscences.]
"Now for a good story in which George Pinder figures. In a certain match at Scarborough during the Carnival, Pinder was put on to bowl his lobs. Afterwards in the pavilion Mr Craven, a gentleman well known both on the Yorkshire Gentlemen's ground at York and at Scarborough, thus addressed the famous stumper, 'Mr Pinder, you're a sinful man.' 'How so, Mr Craven?' 'You bowl twisters; twisters are intended to deceive; and all deception is sin.' Pinder was a bit nonplussed for a moment, and then put the question, 'If he hits me to the boundary for four, how is it then, Mr Craven 1' The argument was carried no further. Mr Craven was stumped.
"I heard a very good thing once at Knaresborough. It was at a match, Knaresborough v. United North. The team included Jonathan Joy and Charlie Penrose. The last-named was a big heavy man of about 22 stones, and he had to be followed in the batting by Joy. At the drawing of stumps Penrose was not out, and on leaving the field I heard one of the crowd — who could evidently not afford to break more than one day—say, 'Deary me, I came just to see Joy bat, and here he's not going in until to-morrow morning.' His companion wittily replied, 'Why, don't you know that heaviness (22 stones of it) may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in th
e morning?'
"I was playing once with George Freeman in a match in which there was a deaf umpire. Freeman appealed for 'leg before wicket,' but the umpire simply put his hand to his ear, and said, 'Beg pardon?' George asked again, 'How's that 1' 'What for 1' re-queried the umpire. 'Leg before wicket, of course,' said George. 'Oh, not out, of course,' replied the umpire; 'I only once in my life gave one of my own side out leg before wicket. What time is dinner? That's t' main thing wi' umpires.'
"Umpires are, as a rule, credited with very good appetites on match days. Certainly I have known some who would have made poor 'fasters.' I played once in a match for the Ealing C.C. v. Wimbledon. Rain interfered considerably with the play, and consequently there was more time expended over luncheon than would otherwise have been the case. One of the umpires 'did himself' very well, and on a remark being made to this effect, he said, 'I've not done half so well as I did at Esher the other day.' 'What did you do at Esher?' 'Why, I began with a bit of roast-beef; then I had a bit of boiled beef; then I had a bit of lamb; then I had a bit of duck; then a friend of mine recommended the veal-and-ham pie, so I had a bit of that; but I liked the boiled beef best, so I went back to that and made my dinner off it.'
"Once in a match in which I was playing, a well-known ex-county player was umpiring. On the luncheon-table was a most useful 'Derby' round of beef, which I was carving. I gave him three or four complete rounds of this boneless meat. On my asking him if he would have some more he replied, 'No, thank you, sir; I'm rather poorly to-day.' It was of this same gentleman that I heard the story that on another occasion when he was asked by the carver what kind of a piece he would like he replied, 'Get weel hod on't wi' t' knife, and gie us a bit 'at won't bend.'
"Every one knows the unwillingness of umpires to 'noball' a bowler who is suspiciously like a thrower, even when he does throw a bit. I played in a match a few years ago for the Yorkshire Gentlemen v. I Zingari in Escrick Park. W. F. Forbes was one of the I Z. bowlers, and 'Granny' Martingell was umpire at his end. I was batting. Presently I said, 'Why don't you no-ball him, Martingell 1 He's throwing, isn't he 1' 'Granny' replied, 'It isn't very pleasant noballing a gentleman. Let 'em begin at Lord's in some of the big matches!' Then he turned to Mr Forbes and said, 'Now, Mr Forbes, bowl a bit, bowl a bit.' I believe Mr Forbes threw a cricket-ball 132 yards when a boy at Eton, so it can be imagined at what pace a ball would come from him at 20 yards. Fortunately we had an equally fast thrower on our side, Mr Arthur Motley, who did equal execution for us. One of his deliveries went off the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton's head for four leg-byes! I forget which side won, but I believe one side was out for 19 and the other for 23.