Arthur Henry Seymour Clark (26 March 1902 – 17 March 1995), was a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er who played five times for

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in the

1930 English cricket season 1930 was the 37th season of County Championship cricket in England and will always be remembered for the remarkable batting performances of Australia's Don Bradman. Australia won the Test series 2–1. Lancashire regained the championship to com ...

and set a record for the number of innings batted without scoring a run that appears not to have been surpassed. Clark, a locomotive driver with the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, did not play any cricket until he was 25, when he began playing for a railways team. Three years later he was called into the Somerset side for five matches when regular wicketkeeper Wally Luckes was ill. He took eight catches, and ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' for 1931 said that he "rendered useful service in that capacity". He stood up to the wicket to all bowlers, even the fastest. The county offered him a professional contract but he decided to stay with the railway. Irving Rosenwater, "And never a run did come", ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...

'', December 1975, pp. 23, 28. Clark is chiefly remembered as a batsman. In nine innings in the five games, he failed to score a single run. This article was first published in the July 1988 edition of ''Wisden Cricket Monthly''. In the match against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...

, he was not out in both innings and failed to score, but otherwise he was out for 0, bowled five times and caught twice. Nine innings is believed to be the record for a first-class cricketer who failed to score a single run. John Howarth of

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

played in 13 matches without scoring, but batted only seven times. In Clark's obituary in ''Wisden'' 1996 edition, it is reported that the

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

bowler Peter Smith, bowling Essex to an overwhelming victory at

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, attempted to give him a run. He bowled so gently to Clark that the ball bounced twice before reaching the batsman. Clark was still bowled by it. In club cricket, Clark reckoned his highest score was three. Clark remained with the railway until he retired to Weston-super-Mare in 1965.

References

* ''

'', 1931 and 1996 editions

External links

*
Seymour Clark
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Seymour 1902 births 1995 deaths English cricketers Somerset cricketers Cricketers from Weston-Super-Mare