Famous Cricketers No 95 - P.A.Perrin

175. Essex v Nottinghamshire, Leyton, August 4, 5, 6 (Match drawn) [3] b G.Anthony 32 590 - - - - 190 8 1 23 0 365-3 176. Essex v Lancashire, Leyton, August 11, 12, 13 (Match drawn) [3] b A.Kermode 143† 559-9 2 0 22 0 505-6d 1 177. Essex v Yorkshire, Headingley, August 15, 16, (17) (Match drawn) [3] b G.H.Hirst 7 204 379 4 [3] lbw b W.Rhodes 67† 118-6 178. Essex v Leicestershire, Aylestone Road, Leicester, August 18, 19, 20 (Essex won by nine wickets) [3] c.J.H.King b G.C.Gill 18 297 314 1 [3] not out 32 204-1 186 1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct County Championship 18 31 4 1421 343* 52.62 5 3 17 Other match 1 1 0 65 65 65.00 - 1 1 Season 19 32 4 1486 343* 53.07 5 4 18 Career 178 310 33 10975 343* 39.62 30 48 78 Bowling O M R W BB Ave County Championship (6b) 17 2 61 0 - - Career (6b) 66.5 12 } 337 7 2-31 48.14 (5b) 33 5 1905 Finishing twelfth of sixteen in the Championship, Essex had a modest season, because of the weakness of the club’s bowling. They played two matches against the Australians. They won the first in June, despite Perrin achieving a pair, and were the only county side to beat the tourists. In the second, in early September, Essex narrowly escaped defeat, when again Perrin’s contribution was small. Perrin’s own performances were inconsistent. He failed to reach fifty in his first nine matches, and at that point in the season had scored 267 runs at an average of 15.70. His form was so poor in June that he dropped down the batting order. He recovered his fluency, however, and in the last eleven matches he scored 892 at 49.55. For the second time he scored a century in each innings of a match. This was at Lord’s against Middlesex, where in the second innings he steered Essex to victory with twenty minutes to spare after they had been set 254 to win in 160 minutes by P.F.Warner. For the first time since 1896 he took part in a festival match, at Blackpool, when the ‘South’ included four other Essex players. Wisden decided that his overall return for the season amounted for him to ‘only moderate figures.’ Perrin’s poor form in the first two months of the season, particularly his pair against the tourists, would have put him out of contention for Test selection. Cricket magazine said that his two centuries at Lord’s off Middlesex showed quite his ‘old skill and ease’, after he had been ‘unlucky’ all through the season up to that point. Perrin, now twenty-nine and in his tenth season of first-class cricket, captained Essex in a first-class match for the first time, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in July, when F.L.Fane, the appointed captain, was absent. Fane missed three further matches later in the season, but McGahey, rather than Perrin led the side. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 179. Essex v Surrey, Kennington Oval, May 4 ,5, 6 (Surrey won by 185 runs) [3] c W.C.Smith b N.A.Knox 10 123 - - - - 138 [3] b W.S.Lees 7 213 4 0 22 0 383 180. Essex v Lancashire, Old Trafford, May 15, 16 (Lancashire won by six wickets) [3] c A.H.Hornby b J.Hallows 6 148 211 [3] c W.R.Cuttell b J.Sharp 24 165 103-4 36