Cricket 1900

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. n o . 5 3 6 . voi. xix, THUESDAY, MAY 3, 1900 p h i c b sa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. PERCY PERRIN. The career as a cricketer of Mr. Perrin has been altogether remarkable. It was not until 1896 that he first played in a county match for Essex, and almost at once he took rank among the best players of the day. His reputation as a batsman, already great at the begin­ ning of last year, was con­ siderably increased before the end of the season, for on the excellent wickets he nearly always made a lot of runs, scoring six hundreds in county matches before the season closed. After he left school he began to play for Tottenham, making his first hundred against Heme Hill in his first season. In the following year he was in the county team, scoring 1 and 51 against Surrey, and 26 and 37 in the following match against the Austra­ lians, whose bowling he played with the confidence and ease of a veteran. In that year he score.i 801 runs and had an average of 26. In 1898 his best scores were 153 against Warwickshire and 104 against Hampshire at Leyton, in the match which was played for Pickett’s benefit; owing to rain and other causes he was at the wicket on each of the three days in putting to­ gether this innings. Mr. Perrin and Mr. McGahey are, as everybody knows, commonly known as the Essex twins, but whether this is because their styles and appearance are so widely different it is difficult to say. Mr. Perrin is naturally enthusiastic about the personnel of the Essex team. “ My idea of perfect style,” he said, “ is that which is shown by A. P. Lucas; it seems to me to be absolutely graceful, and one could not wish a stroke to be altered. We have a great captain in Mr. Owen—as good a captain as anybody on the field; it is so easy to get on with him, he is such a fine judge of the game, and is always cheerful. We were tre­ mendously handicapped by the inability of Kortright to play last year. I don’t think that the Australians would have liked him. Giffen made no attempt to play him at Leyton in his last tour; he swung his bat round, and as it flew off to square- leg he said : ‘ Well, you can have my wicket at any time; you’re much too fast for me.’ I hope that Kortright will be himself again this year. I saw him a day or two ago at the nets hitting as hard as ever, and; he] seems' to be bowling all right. In Mead we [have a bowler who, no matter in what state the game may be, is never put out in the least; he still keeps steadily on, always expecting to take a wicket with every ball. He has the wonderful power of being able sometimes to put on an off- break and turn the ball from the other way without knowing how he does it; naturally a batsman is often deceived.” Even as a small boy at school at Heath Brow, Boxmoor, Mr. Perrin showed signs of being a batsman out of the common order. “ But,” he said, “ it was at Margate College that my career as a cricketer may be said really to have begun. We had an excellent coach in O’Connor—I fancy he is the same man who now plays for Cambridgeshire. He was a good bowler, too. His chief object was to make us play with a straight bat, and this has proved very useful to me. In my first year in the eleven my highest score was 63 against W y e; and in the second year my average was 40, which is, I believe, the only time that that of Abram Lewis, at the same school, was beaten; he was a very fine batsman, whose schol­ astic duties prevented him from playing much in first- class cricket, although he was tried for Kent.” “ Did anyone ‘ discover’ you ? ” “ Mr. George Cashford, a well-known cricketer, who used to play for the Dalston Alberts, told Mr. C. E. Green about me, and sug­ gested that it might be worth giving me a trial. This was at the time when Mr. Green had engaged Abel and Maurice Read to coach the county players before the season began. Mr. Green at once sent for me, and although at first I could make very little of the bowling, which in its length and spin was very different from anything to which I had been accustomed, I was put in the county team in the first match of the season. (From a Photo i MB. PEBCY PURRIN'. I Tutt & Co., High Road , Tottenham.)