All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

127 Tich Freeman Not surprisingly, five foot two inches tall Alfred Percy Freeman was universally known as ‘Tich’. His achievements with the ball were staggering. Technically he had everything. Unrelentingly accurate, off a short run-up (often preceded by a hitch of the trousers) his stock ball was the leg break, varied with a well-disguised googly or top spinner. And if that wasn’t enough for the poor batsman to cope with, he varied pace and flight skilfully. Born in Lewisham, South London in 1888 into a cricketing family many of whom played for Essex, Freeman actually appeared for Essex Club and Ground but, no doubt to their eternal regret, the county did not engage him. Joining the Kent staff in 1912 when, with Blythe, Woolley and the googlies of Douglas Carr, Kent were already well served for spin, it was difficult to break into the side and in effect his career only really started in 1919. His impact was immediate. Initially taking between 150 and 200 wickets in most seasons, Freeman’s wicket-taking then moved up to extraordinary levels: a record 304 wickets in 1928, and more than 2,000 wickets in eight seasons - including a record three all-tens. Kent v Lancashire, 1929 County Championship Mote Park, Maidstone on 24, 25, 26 July 1929 (3-day match) Toss won by Lancashire Lancashire won by 189 runs Umpires: A Morton, J Stone Lancashire 347 (FB Watson 126, AP Freeman 10-131) and 305-6 dec (C Hallows 114); Kent 235 and 228 Lancashire first innings C Hallows c Ames b Freeman 13 FB Watson lbw b Freeman 126 GE Tyldesley st Ames b Freeman 66 J Iddon st Ames b Freeman 30 JL Hopwood lbw b Freeman 1 TM Halliday b Freeman 5 L Warburton c Todd b Freeman 14 +G Duckworth c Ashdown b Freeman 4 *PT Eckersley b Freeman 27 RK Tyldesley not out 27 EA McDonald c Watson b Freeman 18 Extras (lb 15, nb 1) 16 Total (all out, 107 overs) 347 Fall of wickets 1-28, 2-174, 3-234, 4-248, 5-254, 6-264, 7-274, 8-293, 9-311, 10-347 Kent bowling: AC Wright 21-3-81-0, WH Ashdown 17-5-43-0, AP Freeman 42-9-131-10, FE Woolley 13-6-35-0, HTW Hardinge 14-5-41-0