All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

107 Charlie Parker Gloucestershire v Somerset, 1921 County Championship Fry’s Ground, Bristol on 30 July, 1. 2 August 1921 (3-day match) Toss won by Somerset Gloucestershire won by one wicket Umpires: J Blake, HI Young Somerset 212 (CWL Parker 10-79) and 240 (PT Mills 5-92); Gloucestershire 248 and 205-9 Somerset first innings PR Johnson c Barnett b Parker 1 JCW MacBryan c Williams b Parker 46 TC Lowry c Smith b Parker 20 A Young b Parker 34 SGU Considine lbw b Parker 23 +LE Wharton b Parker 12 *J Daniell st Robinson b Parker 4 E Robson c Smith b Parker 7 JC White lbw b Parker 16 JJ Bridges c Barnett b Parker 24 RC Robertson-Glasgow not out 21 Extras (lb 3, w 1) 4 Total (all out, 80.3 overs) 212 Fall of wickets 1-3, 2-47, 3-87, 4-116, 5-139, 6-142, 7-143, 8-161, 9-176, 10-212 Gloucestershire bowling: CWL Parker 40.3-13-79-10, PT Mills 38-7-116-0, EG Dennett 2-0-13-0 Gloucestershire: AE Dipper, FJ Seabrook, EP Barnett, WH Rowlands, PFC Williams, H Smith, FG Robinson (capt, wk), JL Stanton, PT Mills, CWL Parker, EG Dennett Well over 3,000 first-class wickets, but just one Test cap, for one of the best left-arm spinners ever? Many reasons have been suggested: there were a number of very good spinners playing; Gloucestershire were perhaps an unfashionable county; Parker wasn’t that young; maybe his fielding wasn’t very good. His outspokenness didn’t help. If something needed to be said, he said it. A kindly man off the field, Parker was at times his own worst enemy. Accosting Pelham Warner in the lift of a Bristol hotel at the end of Gloucestershire’s Annual Dinner in 1929 didn’t help his cause. Parker clearly blamed the influential Warner for his stunted Test career. Born in Prestbury, Gloucestershire into a large farm-labouring family in 1882, Parker attended Cheltenham Grammar School and continued his self-education after leaving. He established himself in the Gloucestershire side in 1908. George Dennett was the left-arm spinner in situ and so Parker bowled medium pace. Although he did all right he wasn’t really happy and after the War informed the county that he would play as a spinner, or leave.