At his best, "Nobby" Clark was the fastest professional bowler apart from Harold Larwood and his beautiful action enabled him to stand up to the considerable spells of work required of him given that Northamptonshire had little support in the field apart from Fred Bakewell at short leg.

However, his fiery temperament – he would get angry over even slight problems like broken footholds or missed chances – greatly reduced Clark's appeal to selectors for Test and other representative matches.

[citation needed] In 1929, however, Clark recovered his form to miss 150 wickets by only one and play his first Test at Kennington Oval, where he was criticised for overdoing leg theory.

The extreme financial difficulties faced by Northamptonshire – at one point the club was poised to exit the first-class arena – caused "Nobby" Clark to leave in July 1930 for league cricket.

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.

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.