Famous Cricketers No 95 - P.A.Perrin

150. Essex v Leicestershire, Aylestone Road, Leicester, July 16, 17, (18) (Match drawn) [3] c C.J.B.Wood b G.C.Gill 3 208 184 [3] not out 38 117-2 151. Essex v Derbyshire, Glossop, July 20, 21, 22 (Essex won by 232 runs) [3] b W.Storer 52 220 139 [3] c A.E.Lawton b W Bestwick 66 282-5d 131 1 152. Essex v Lancashire, Old Trafford, July 23, 24, 25 (Essex won by two wickets) [3] c A.Eccles b W.Brearley 50 323 190 1 [3] b J.Sharp 72† 201-8 331 153. Essex v Middlesex, Leyton, July (30), 31, August 1 (Middlesex won by seven wickets) [3] c G.W.Beldam b J.T.Rawlin 19 89 136 [3] c J.T.Rawlin b A.E.Trott 15 99 53-3 154. Essex v Kent, Canterbury, August 3, 4, 5 (Kent won by ten wickets) [3] b C.Blythe 7 121 324 [3] c S.H.Day b J.R.Mason 41 248 47-0 155. Essex v Nottinghamshire, Leyton, August 6, 7, 8 (Nottinghamshire won by an innings and 2 runs) [7] b B.W.Taylor 4 129 380 1 [3] c and b J.R.Gunn 110† 249 156. Essex v Lancashire, Leyton, August 13, (14), 15 (Lancashire won by 119 runs) [3] c J.S.Heap b W.R.Cuttell 35 71 168 [3] c W.A.Worsley b W.R.Cuttell 3 62 84-1d 157. Essex v Yorkshire, Bramall Lane, Sheffield, August 17, (18), 19 (Match drawn) [3] c Lord Hawke b W.Rhodes 47† 106 115 [3] lbw b S.Haigh 1 36-8 76-3d 158. Essex v Hampshire, Southampton, August (24), 25, 26 (Match drawn) [3] c sub b T.Soar 50 211 164 [3] not out 39† 82-2d 36-1 159. Essex v Leicestershire, Leyton, August 27, 28, 29 (Essex won by ten wickets) [6] b W.W.Odell 43 308 144 1 did not bat - 6-0 168 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct County Championship 20 36 4 1428 170 44.62 4 6 7 Career 159 278 29 9489 205 38.10 25 44 60 Bowling O M R W BB Ave County Championship (6b) 2 0 9 0 - - Career (6b) 49.5 10 } 276 7 2-31 39.42 (5b) 33 5 1904 Carefully avoiding understatement, Wisden reported that ‘Essex had a truly disastrous season’. Playing twenty county matches, but winning only three, they were without Walter Mead’s bowling because of a pay dispute, and finished the season fourteenth out of fifteen in the Championship. Only Hampshire had a higher overall bowling average. Wisden said that they ought to have done better with the talent at their command. The Essex annual report, usually rather bland in tone, said that the efforts of bowlers were not supported by enough ‘energy in the field’. Perrin, with his 343 at Chesterfield in July bringing him national fame, stood apart from some of this criticism, though the Almanack awarded him a stern sideswipe for his fielding in its Cricketer of the Year notice, saying ‘rather slow on his feet, he seems to lack entirely the born fielder’s power of anticipating the direction of a hit.’ Remarkably the Essex annual report made no reference to his 343. Cricket magazine thought him ‘as usual, the mainstay of his side.’ After a good start in a 34