Bertie Clarke


Carlos Bertram "Bertie" Clarke, OBE was a West Indian cricketer who played in three Tests in 1939. During the war when three-day cricket was an impossibility due to the demands of labour for the military, Clarke was the leading bowler for the British Empire XI which played one-day matches across the country. He took 98 wickets for 11.48 runs apiece in 1941 and bettered this with 129 for 10.17 apiece in 1942.
A fine leg-spinner, he was for a time a guest of the Queen, after which, according to an admiring Leo Cooper, he returned “the same as ever and continued to weave his spells over a host of club cricketers”.
After the war, Clarke played frequently though not regularly for Northamptonshire in 1946 and 1947, and much later for Essex in 1959 and 1960.