Edward Clark (cricketer)
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| Bowling style | Left-arm fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Edward Winchester "Nobby" Clark (born 9 August 1902, Elton, Huntingdonshire, died 28 April 1982, King's Lynn, Norfolk) was a Northamptonshire cricketer of the inter-war period during which they were one of the weakest counties ever to play in the County Championship. Nonetheless, Clark, a bowler of genuine pace who could swing the ball in and make it break away to produce catches in the slips, was regarded in his prime as one of the best fast bowlers in England. He could also bowl, as Bill Voce did under Jardine, to a leg-side field, but was never as effective doing so despite his beautiful action. Like Voce, Clark often bowled round the wicket.
At his best, "Nobby" Clark was the fastest professional bowler apart from Harold Larwood and his beautiful action enabled him to stand up to the considerable spells of work required of him given that Northamptonshire had little support in the field apart from Fred Bakewell at short leg.
However, his fiery temperament that would get angry over even slight problems like broken footholds or missed chances greatly reduced Clark's appeal to selectors for Test and other representative matches. "Nobby"'s extreme weakness as a batsman further reduced his chances of competing with players who were much better bats and could bowl almost as well. Between July 1925 and June 1927 Clark played sixty-five innings without reaching double figures and he never made more than 30 in a first-class innings. Clark was born near Peterborough and first played for Northamptonshire as a teenager in 1922 after success in Yorkshire League cricket. He came to prominence in 1925, when he took eleven wickets in a surprise win over Kent and was in the top twenty of the national averages. Despite playing in the 1928 Test Trial, injury meant he was not seriously in contention for a place on the Ashes tour.
1929, however, saw "Nobby" bounce right back to miss 150 wickets by only one and play his first Test at Kennington Oval, where he was criticised for overdoing leg-theory. The extreme financial difficulties faced by Northamptonshire – at one point the club was poised to exit the first-class arena – caused "Nobby" Clark to leave in July 1930 for league cricket. He returned to the county in 1932.
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