2nd not 1st: Essex 1899-1914 (6th ed)

Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Champ 3 6 124 20.66 1 1 Bowling Balls M R W 5wI 10wM Champ 96 0 72 1 Highest score: 79. Best bowling: 1-30 Pfeiffer, Carl Wilhelm Knowles (1877-1951) Born 16 June 1877, St Pancras. Died 14 March 1951, Caterham. Registered as Charles William Winkler Pfeiffer. Played 1903. He was the son of Robert Wilhelm, a manufacturer’s agent who was born in Saxony, and Laura Sophia Knowles. Robert died in 1890 leaving six children, and Charles Winkler, a merchant from Austria, became their guardian. In 1901 Carl was a clerk in the Gas, Light and Coke Company, and had begun to call himself Charles. In 1934 he married Florence Madge Story at Marylebone, and his surname was wrongly indexed as Pleiffer. He died in 1951 leaving £266 but Madge had private means and twenty years later left £19,503. Pfeiffer had a remarkable cricket career. In 1899 and 1900 he was living in Cornwall and soon developed a reputation with several clubs as a formidable bowler and useful bat. By 1901 he had returned to London and was playing for the South Hampstead and Addiscombe Wanderers clubs. He twice toured Devon with Addiscombe, in 1901 scoring a century and in 1902 taking 63 wickets at 8.1. In 1902 he played for the Holborn Club alongside JH Douglas, father of Johnny, which may be how he came to be invited to play for Essex 2nd XI in 1903. Pfeiffer’s Essex 2nd XI debut was not the most auspicious, taking 2 for 89 in the team’s first defeat ever. He was selected for the home match against Norfolk but the professional Jesse Littlewood was allowed as a full substitute for him, so presumably he was injured or engaged elsewhere. His most significant contribution was at Lord’s when, after the professionals Tremlin and Reeves failed to make an impact, he took 5 for 48, but the game was washed out before Essex could bat. One of the better modern cricket jokes is to call a five-wicket haul a Michelle, after the Hollywood actress, but here perhaps was the very first example! Against Suffolk he took 2 for 8 in 10 overs but again the rain came. Superb bowling by the Essex professionals and more rain meant that he had no opportunity in the two remaining matches. He was born and lived in Middlesex so was not qualified for the Essex 1st XI, but would perhaps have continued to play for the 2nd if it had survived. In the Great War he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and in 1916 was appointed acting captain, a rank he retained for the rest of his life. Perhaps unusually, he did not anglicise his surname during the war. The Western Division of the Royal Garrison Artillery was based at Devonport and Pfeiffer may well have served there and stayed on after the war, because from 1920-1924 he played six matches for Devon, five in the Minor Counties Championship. He scored 109 runs at 18.16, took 24 wickets at 24.71 and held three catches. His highest score was 49 and his best bowling 7 for 71. Pfeiffer was also an all-round sportsman and organiser of sport. He played football for Brondesbury FC and served on the committee which formed the London Playing Fields