First-class record

Matches: 53
Runs: 897
Top Score: 67
Batting average: 12.81
Wickets: 199
Best bowling: 8/91
Bowling average: 21.97
5 wickets in an innings: 11
10 wickets in a match: 4

With Bart King being so often talked about as the pre-eminent bowler in pre-World War I American cricket, the achievements of his regular new ball partner Percy Clark are often overlooked, impressive as they are.

The youngest of four brothers to have played first-class cricket, Clark began to play cricket in 1885 for the Young America cricket club in Philadelphia, representing their junior side when aged just 11. By 1889, he was playing for Tioga Cricket Club, where he began his partnership with Bart King.

Four years later, Clark made his first-class debut in somewhat unusual circumstances for the Gentlemen of Philadelphia against the Players of the USA. In the original Philadelphian line-up, only one player was making his first-class debut originally, 14 year old Nelson Graves, but at some point during the match, Percy Clark was allowed to come on as a full substitute for Archibald Thomson. He didn't bowl however, and scored 0 not out before the match ended in a draw.

He played a much fuller role in his second first-class match, taking 5/49 and 1/18 as Philadelphia beat Australia by an innings at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford. He went on the Philadelphian tour of England the following year, taking 33 wickets at the somewhat disappointing average of 31.84. He made his debut for the USA national side in 1898, taking two wickets in each innings as the USA beat Canada by an innings. He played in the fixture again the next year, taking five wickets in the first Canadian innings. His best bowling for the USA came in the 1900 fixture against Canada, when he took 6/41 in the first innings.

In 1903 he toured England for a second time, and had a much more successful tour, taking 79 wickets at 20.67, picking up his career best innings bowling against Worcestershire when he took 8/91. He was not selected for the 1908 tour of England on which Bart King wreaked havoc amongst English batsmen, though he did play for the USA against Canada later in the year.

The next year, he captained the Philadelphians for the first time in a two match series against Ireland, during which Bart King took 25 wickets at 6.04, including taking all ten in the first innings of the first match, meaning that Clark did not have the usual bowling captains dilemma of how much to use his own bowling, bowling just 15 overs in the series.

He was also captain for his remaining six first-class matches, all against Australia. Five of those were for Philadelphia, and featured one win. The other, and his final first-class match in 1913, was for a combined Canada/USA XI, and he took one wicket in each innings. He was also instrumental in leading Germantown Cricket Club to a four wicket win over Australia on that 1913 tour of North America, scoring 82 when batting in the first innings and taking 6/38 when bowling in the second.

The onset of the First World War the following year, and with the USA unable to join the ICC due to its then “British Empire” only membership restriction, meant that first-class cricket was not played in the USA again in Clark's lifetime, leaving him on a frustrating first-class wicket tally of 199. His last major match was for Philadelphia against the Free Foresters in 1923 when aged 50. After being born two months before Bart King, he passed away two months before him, in 1965 at the age of 92 in Villanova, Pennsylvania.