Basil Frederick Clarke (26 September 1885–4 May 1940) was an Indian-born English cricketer.^[1] A right-handed batsman, he played county cricket for Gloucestershire and Leicestershire^[2] and also played twice for the Egypt national cricket team.^[3]

Biography

Born in Madras in 1885,^[2] Basil Clarke made his first-class debut for Gloucestershire in a County Championship match against Nottinghamshire during the 1914 English cricket season. He played two further county championship matches, against Lancashire and Yorkshire, that season.^[4]

His cricket career was interrupted by the First World War, and he returned to first-class cricket for the 1919 season, when he played four County Championship matches for Gloucestershire. He also played first-class matches for Gloucestershire against Worcestershire and the touring Australian Imperial Forces team in addition to a match for the Army against the Royal Navy at Lord's and a match for HDG Leveson-Gower's XI against Oxford University during the season.^[4]

He played three County Championship matches for Gloucestershire in 1920, in addition to a match for the Army against Oxford University. He moved to play for Leicestershire for the 1922 season, playing five County Championship matches in his last year of first-class cricket.^[4]

He played twice for the Egypt national side against Free Foresters in April 1927.^[3] He scored just one first-class century in his career,^[2] an unbeaten 108 against Hampshire^[5] in 1919.^[6] He died in Sussex in 1940.^[2]

References