By Paul Hargreaves
From Manny Martindale to Kirti Azad, from Basil Butcher to Ryan Harris, Lowerhouse C.C. has a long history of employing overseas Test stars. The very first in that long line was Protea Claude Carter who was signed exactly 100 years ago in 1925.
Carter was born in 1881 and learned his skills as a slow left-arm bowler at Old Boys Model School in Durban. He made his debut for his native Natal as a precocious teenager in 1897. Carter played for Zingari C.C. and his state team but was only regarded as a journeyman, and it was a surprise when he was called up for a trial match for the 1912 touring team to England. He wasn’t just making up the numbers though, and scored 75 and took 7-116, securing a passage on the boat north.
1912 was the year of the only triangular Test series in history as England, Australia and South Africa were scheduled to play each other in 3 games each. As a concept it hasn’t been repeated and the wet weather that season didn’t help matters. Carter’s best early game was when taking 7 wickets at the Racecourse Ground at Derby. In those days the ground was adjacent to a functioning racecourse. Derby was known as quite a good course. Probably the finest horse to run on the flat there was the brilliantly fast 2 year-old The Tetrach (a.k.a. the Spotted Wonder). The most famous jumps horse to run at Derby was the legendary Golden Miller.
Carter didn’t play in any of the Australian Tests but did get 2 caps against a dominant England side. He was wicketless but didn’t get many overs to prove himself.
In the first class games of the 1912 tour, which were far more extensive than the paltry number required nowadays, Carter took 67 wickets at 17 and scored 398 runs. He was obviously a competent fielder, pouching 25 catches.
The highlight of Carter’s short Test career was the 15 wickets he took at home versus a touring Aussie squad in 1921–22. He was the most successful of the home bowlers in that lost series.
At the age of 43 Carter was back in England on the 1924 tour. This had echoes of 1912 when bad weather and a superior English opponent made it a miserable time for South Africa. Carter had to wait until the third Test at Headingly to get back in the team. He got Maurice Tate out. It was his first Test wicket on English soil. He played in the next Test at Manchester but bizarrely didn’t get on the field as the match was all but completely rained off.
Carter’s last ever Test would be soon after at The Oval. He did get 3 victims there and famous names they all were. Tate again (his rabbit?), plus Kent’s Frank Woolley and Patsy Hendren of Middlesex. In the first class games of the 1924 tour Claude had 65 victims. He had finished with 28 Test victims amongst 366 in first class cricket. Unfortunately he was never on the winning side in Tests. Only a below average batter, he made 3 scores of over 50 over his career.
The next year Carter would become the first overseas Test player to join Lowerhouse but wasn’t able to play before mid-June and ‘House were forced to employ an array of sub-pro’s such as Morfee, Suckling and Brownrigg.
As he began his ‘House stint, Tommy Shutt the Lowerhouse stalwart, was ready to call it a day as he was about to net his remarkable 1,000th club wicket. Carter and Shutt just played 3 matches in the same dressing room.
Carter would take 43 wickets that season and, in his full season of 1926, take 78 more. His batting skills were never those of Hobbs or Bradman but had deteriorated over the years and he only just passed 3 figures for the entire season in each of his 2 ‘House campaigns. Lowerhouse were very weak in amateur batting in 1926 and finished bottom of the League.
Coincidentally ‘House were also rock bottom the only other time they’d employed a Test player as pro’. That had been in 1912 when Yorkshireman Walter Lees was the paid man.
It wasn’t quite the end for Claude Carter as a cricketer as he played Minor Counties for Cornwall in the early 1930’s. He showed Blez-like longevity playing his final game in 1935 at the age of 54. He died aged 71 back in Natal in 1952.