What is the definition of a life well lived? Andy Clark, who died in April at the age of 54, made one of the better cases that the world can ever have known. For 23 years, he was a ubiquitous presence on England's overseas Test tours, usually to be found at some strategic intersection outside a cricket ground before or after play, selling copies of the fanzine, "Corridor of Uncertainty", that he conceived as a cunning ruse to avoid ever spending another winter in his home city of Hull.
From his first tour of India in 2001, right up until his final visit to Dharamsala for James Anderson's 700th wicket in March 2024, "Clarky" (as most people came to know him) compiled 28 editions of his homespun publication, usually by commandeering a local copy centre in the hours before a Test series began, and stitching together an eclectic range of contributions using paper, scissors, glue and emails. Depending on the country and its cost of living, some 600 sales would generally be sufficient to cover his winter costs. Anything thereafter was beer money. "Top bombing!" as he would no doubt have put it.
Throughout this week's second Test at Trent Bridge, his memory will be celebrated in a special tribute edition of the CoU, available around the perimeter of the ground, and compiled by many of the friends who packed out St Andrew's Church in Kirk Ella for his memorial service in May.
For Clarky was a lot more than just an entrepreneurial cricket fan. On those England tours, particularly to the more far-flung destinations such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, he fulfilled a range of de facto briefs - confidant, intermediary, liaison officer … chief scout when it came to hunting down excellent, if borderline illicit, boozers for post-play meet-ups, and last but not least, human signpost. For he was a man who knew everyone, and everyone knew him. Anyone lost in the crush of bodies as a venue emptied out could seek him out, selling his wares from a high vantage point, and be put back on the trail of their friends in seconds.
Clarky's finest hour as a tour "fixer" arguably came in Sri Lanka in 2007, when he concocted a cunning plan to reunite a fellow fan with his luggage, from which he had been separated during a delayed transfer. He organised for another friend of his to collect said backpack from the hotel at which it had arrived, then arranged to pick it up on the platform of a local train station as he and his companions passed through en route to Colombo.
In theory, it was a simple handover - the train was scheduled to stop for a few minutes en route, but in the course of a series of follow-up texts, it transpired that "you goons are on the express so it's going to fly through". The upshot was a command to launch the bag out of the train's open doors, which then bounced like something out of the Dambusters down the platform, with Clarky successfully clearing a path through a crowd of bemused onlookers. "Top bombing" indeed!
Clarky's output wasn't limited to fanzines either. As the CoU's reputation grew, so too did its spin-off merch… a range of bespoke T-shirts, depicting the venues for each tour and exhorting the wearers to "keep it real!" (which, as much as anything, was a dig in the ribs for some of the more commercialised England tour groups of his time). On the Ashes tour in 2006-07, he hit upon one of his best-remembered items: a simple white T-shirt depicting "Douglas Jardine - Ashes Hero", which not only sold out in hours, but piqued a perfectly indignant reaction in the local media too.
In his later years, Clarky's bravery and bloodymindedness (one and the same thing at times …) shone through in a whole different light when, still only in his early 40s, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease - a cruel and pernicious condition that was destined to rob him of the very independence that he held so dear. Far from allowing it to hold him back, however, Clarky doubled down on his determination to live his life as he saw fit. Not only did he continue to tour and produce his fanzine, he founded a support group, The London Working Age Parkinson's Meet-up, which held monthly gatherings at the Roundhouse in Camden, and on Zoom during Covid. As was apparent from the huge number of tributes from fellow "Parkies" at his memorial, his involvement and unquenchable optimism genuinely helped to transform lives.
In his touring pomp, Clarky's ability to command centre stage manifested itself in, not one, but two Test-match "crowd catches", the first in Mumbai in 2006 (Andrew Flintoff's "Ring of Fire" Test) and then in Antigua in 2015, when Ben Stokes launched Sulieman Benn straight into the stands at wide long-on. "Good hands," was Nasser Hussain's considered verdict, as Clarky toppled backwards, ball nestled safely above his head, and into the embrace of his fellow fans.
Other aspects of Clarky's well-lived life included his love of travel and the great outdoors - two passions that married up to perfection on his long treks across the subcontinent, invariably by train. He studied land use at Agricultural college, which led initially to a job with the National Trust in Cumbria, and eventually brought him down South to oversee the sprawling gardens at Sheikh Juffali's mansion in Surrey - a county at which he would go on to become a long-time member.
His speciality in his working life was the maintenance of drystone walls, a skill that even led him to produce, direct and act in a short film "The Wall of the Roses", a tale of two old adversaries who take it upon themselves to maintain a historic boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire. According to his IMDb profile, he also popped up in a range of uncredited roles in Bollywood films and Indian soap operas.
As a lifelong Hull City fan, Clarky was editor of their fanzine "Tiger's Eye" for ten seasons between 2010 and 2020, and a regular at away fixtures during his London-based years. Shortly after his death in April, the club honoured him with a minute's applause, timed for the 54th minute of their Championship match against Middlesbrough.
Although he had confided in his friends that the recent trip to India was to have been his last cricket tour, it is not going to be his last trip to the subcontinent. Later this year, a group of his friends and family will return to fulfil his final wish, for his ashes to be spread on the Oval Maidan in Mumbai, "at around 8am when the sun is up and the many games of cricket are underway, and to return a little later when the Oval bar is open, and drink a beer, knowing I have frequented this bar on many happy occasions, usually with friends after a day at the cricket".
It promises to be a perfect ending to a life well lived.
All proceeds from the tribute edition of Corridor of Uncertainty will be donated to Parkinson's UK. To make a donation, click here, or to order a copy, contact clarkytribute@gmail.com.