Famous Cricketers No 95 - P.A.Perrin

never went on a first-class tour overseas, although it is possible that he was asked whether he would be available for an Australian tour, probably that of 1901/02. According to J.E.Clay in the Essex handbook in 1960, he said he was ‘unable to consider.’ Perrin played throughout his career as an amateur: few other amateurs have played county cricket with such regularity for so long. His commitment in a typical season to first-class cricket ran from the last week in April, usually until the end of August, covering 130 days in all, although before the First World War, Essex often had a ten day gap between fixtures in early July. On average, he played in twenty matches a season. His appearances in these matches involved playing on 54 days, after allowing for days when no play occurred or when matches were finished early. Travelling to and from away matches accounted for perhaps another six days or so; and attending pre-season nets another ten days, at least in the early part of his career. In a typical season he was thus involved with first-class cricket on about seventy days in all. From 1920, when matches started on Saturday, he would in addition be away from home on a Sunday four or five times in a summer, ‘waiting’ for games to restart on Monday. Because we know he was careful with money, it is probable, at least in his early years, that he claimed expenses in accordance with the usual practice for amateurs. He may have earned small fees for endorsing Surridge and Gradidge bats. There is no evidence that he received any form of ‘under the counter’ payment from Essex. It is unlikely in any event, because for much of his playing career, the club was unable to make such payments as it was rarely out of financial difficulty. Nor would the chairman for much of that time, C.E.Green, who had strong views about professionalism, have countenanced such an arrangement. During Perrin’s playing career, Essex had three Assistant Secretaries, F.G.Bull, C.P.McGahey and L.C.Eastman who had administrative jobs with the club and played as amateurs, but the status of all three was public knowledge. Though perhaps those arrangements involved snobbery, they seemed to have involved little subterfuge. The limited scale of Perrin’s first-class appearances outside county cricket is untypical of amateurs of his time, and perhaps some explanation is necessary. He played only twice in Gentlemen v Players matches, at The Oval in 1896 and at Lord’s in 1906. P.F.Warner said in The Book of Cricket that ‘over and over again he declined the invitation of the MCC Committee’ to play for the amateurs in the Lord’s match. Sir Home Gordon, in his obituary in The Cricketer in 1945, said that he ‘invariably’ declined these invitations after he was omitted when ‘he considered he merited inclusion’. However, in most seasons in Perrin’s best years, Wisden noted the players who declined to play or were unavailable, and only in 1914 is his refusal recorded. He never played in any of the Champion County v The Rest matches usually at The Oval, which ran from 1901: the No 3 position in those matches was usually taken by J.T.Tyldesley, C.P.Mead or D.Denton, and it cannot be said that Perrin merited inclusion ahead of them. Perrin was elected to the MCC in 1901 and he represented the club only once in its early season fixtures against touring sides. For these matches the competition was less strong, but the explanation is that he often played for Essex in preference. When Essex were not playing, the MCC fielded players of the calibre of K.S. Ranjitsinhji, R.H.Spooner, H.K.Foster and C.B.Fry in the place which Perrin might have filled. He rarely played in end of season Festival matches, because according to Sir Home Gordon, as a gauche young man, he was ‘chaffed’ by other players when taking part in one such match: this probably occurred in the Scarborough festival of 1896. Perrin never played Test cricket. In his peak years, say from 1902 to 1909, the No 3 position in home Test matches was taken at various times by J.T.Tyldesley, K.S.Ranjitsinhji and D.Denton, who most would agree were better batsmen than Perrin. They also had stronger fielding skills. Perrin’s most successful seasons, 1904 and 1906, were without Test fixtures, and it might be said that he had peaked in the wrong years. In away series from 1901-02 to 1909-10, the position went to J.T.Tyldesley, D.Denton, W.G.Quaife and George Gunn. Again these were all batsmen as good as Perrin, if not better, and all undoubtedly better fieldsmen. If the selectors considered him, they would perhaps also have noted that his appearances in ‘showcase’ matches were rare, for the reasons we have noted 9