Famous Cricketers No 81 - C.W.L.Parker

CHARLES WARRINGTON LEONARD PARKER Charles Warrington Leonard Parker was born at Prestbury, Cheltenham, not far from the famous race course, on 14th October 1882. His father, Leonard, was a general labourer and the family was a farm-labouring one. With nine children, including Charles, there was never much money to spare. There were some bright children in the family. Charlie’s sister, Maud, was good at music and the family made sure she had lessons. One of his brothers was nicknamed ‘The Poet’ because he had a way with words. Another brother, Rusty, was nearly good enough to play cricket for Gloucestershire. Charlie was good enough at his lessons to win a place at Cheltenham Grammar School where Gilbert Jessop had been educated just a few years before. His earliest sporting ambitions were as a golf professional rather than as a cricketer and he gave no serious thought to cricket until he was seventeen years of age but he then joined the Tewkesbury Cricket Club where he met with the Gloucestershire batsman, Alfred Dipper, and other prominent members of the Club, some of whom served on the Gloucestershire Committee. One of them, Mr F.H.Healing, took an interest in Parker’s progress, helped him to develop his bowling and later recommended him to the Gloucestershire Committee. Parker made his debut for Gloucestershire at the Crystal Palace ground in 1903, playing against the London County club captained by W.G.Grace. He had no success in the match bowling twenty-three overs for 85 runs without taking a wicket. Grace made 150 and one wonders what he thought at this stage of the newcomer who was eventually to overtake his record as the leading wicket taker for Gloucestershire. Parker did not play for Gloucestershire again in 1903 and did not play at all the following season. In 1905 he was selected to play against Lancashire at Old Trafford towards the end of July. With his second ball he took his first wicket for the County, that of that fine amateur Test batsman Reginald Spooner. It was the only wicket he took and knee trouble kept him out of consideration for selection for the rest of the season. He did not play at all in 1906 and only played in seven games in 1907. In one of them, against Worcestershire at Gloucester, he took his first five-wicket bag, six for 56, all without the help of his fielders - five clean bowled and one leg before wicket. At this time he was operating as a medium fast bowler, the left-arm spinner’s spot being occupied by that fine bowler George Dennett. In the famous match at Gloucester when Northamptonshire were dismissed for just twelve runs in their first innings, the lowest County Championship innings ever recorded, Parker did not get a bowl and he only bowled five overs in their second innings of 40 for seven. In 1908 he became an established member of the Gloucestershire side and kept his place until war put an end to first-class cricket in 1914. It has to be said that, at this stage of his career, Parker was a good rather than a great County bowler. Although he took more than 50 wickets each season he never took more than 80 and continued to be overshadowed by Dennett. There was no sign yet of the outstanding bowler he would later become. After serving with the R.A.F. in World War 1 he resumed his career with Gloucestershire in 1919, this time as a spin bowler. He took 92 wickets that season, at the end of which his career total of wickets stood at 559. Over the next sixteen seasons until his retirement in 1935 at the age of 51, he was to take a further 2610 wickets for Gloucestershire alone and to reach a career total of 3278 wickets. Only two bowlers, Wilfred Rhodes and ‘Tich’ Freeman, have taken more first-class wickets and it is safe to say that no modern bowler will ever approach these kind of figures. Parker took 100 wickets in every season between 1920 and 1935 and five times took more than 200. He shares with J.T.Hearne of Middlesex the record of reaching the fastest 100 wickets for a season, a target he reached on June 12th 1931 - in his 47th year. His great bowling feats are fully catalogued later in this book but a few must be mentioned. In his benefit match against Yorkshire in 1922 he hit 3