first match against the touring West Indians he took ten for 61 and in his first six matches 52 wickets for 574 runs. However, after that he was affected by injury but he still took eleven wickets in his two Tests and was chosen for the first Test-playing tour of India that winter. Clark's 1934 season was again plagued by injury, but he was still regarded so highly that he played in two Tests against Australia. At Old Trafford he bowled well on one of the most docile of pitches but had no luck, but in the last Test at the Oval he took five for 98 including the valuable scalps of Brown, Ponsford, McCabe and Kippax. He also failed twice by the narrowest of margins to bowl Don Bradman. In 1935 Clark was bowling for a Northamptonshire side growing weaker and weaker by the year: they lost thirteen consecutive matches in the second half of the season, in several of which "Nobby"'s bowling gave them the upper hand only for feeble batting to ruin their advantage. He would have played in the Old Trafford Test against the South Africans but for yet another injury, but, though he bowled well in an unfavourably wet summer in 1936, his age was already making it hard to maintain speed beyond a few overs and he was never considered for a Test place. It was still a surprise, though, when Clark in 1937 declined so much apart from one haul of six for 29 against Essex that Northamptonshire, already so weak that they had not won any of their last 71 county matches, decided not to re-engage him. After the war in 1946, although he was forty-three, Northamptonshire surprisingly re-engaged "Nobby" and he showed himself still the fastest bowler for four or five overs in England. He was, however, quite naturally unable to bowl any long spell and consequently he did nothing exceptional. 1947 saw him play about half the matches before he retired for good as Northamptonshire's greatest-ever wicket-taker. References External links Nobby Clark at ESPNcricinfo 1902 births 1982 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers People from Elton, Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team