Famous Cricketers No 95 - P.A.Perrin

340. Essex v Northamptonshire, Leyton, August 7, 8, 9 (Northamptonshire won by an innings and 139 runs) [4] c and b S.G.Smith 50† 148 476 1 [4] c R.A.Haywood b W.Wells 8 189 341. Essex v Yorkshire, Bradford, August 18, 19, 20 (Yorkshire won by an innings and 48 runs) [4] c G.H.Hirst b M.W.Booth 8 115 512-9d [4] c A.Dolphin b S.Haigh 60 349 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct County Championship 16 31 3 924 140 33.00 1 8 7 Career 341 597 54 20997 343* 38.66 54 103 176 Bowling O M R W BB Ave County Championship (6b) 4 2 13 0 - - Career (6b) 133.4 24 } 600 11 2-31 54.54 (5b) 33 5 1914 After a poor start, Essex drew very considerable hope from the season from their better return of eighth position, based on improved bowling figures, and from improved finances resulting from higher attendances at Leyton matches and at their first ever match at Castle Park, Colchester. That optimism dissipated with the collapse of international order just across the English Channel. Perrin declined to serve on the Club’s selection committee. Usually batting fourth in the order, he was now 38 years old, but played in twenty of the Essex fixture list of 24 Championship matches. Wisden thought he ‘retained his form wonderfully well’ but that he was ‘far less brilliant than in his young days.’ In his first thirteen matches he scored 1,015 runs at an average of 46.13, including nine innings of fifty or more. His highest score, a chanceless innings of 126 against Kent at Leyton, was spread over three days in a rain spoiled match. In his last seven matches, though, as the international crisis deepened, he scored only 246 runs at average of 22.36, with a top score of only 46. He missed three matches in August, and in consequence again left the position of the county’s leading run scorer to Russell. Despite his poor form at the end of the season, Perrin finished thirteenth in the national batting averages. In the middle of his run of good form in July, Perrin was asked to play for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s. He declined the invitation and preferred, instead, to play in his county’s losing match at Tunbridge Wells against Kent. (The Essex captain, J.W.H.T.Douglas, preferred the Lord’s game.) Perrin’s 90 in the second innings of this match, seeking but failing to avoid an innings defeat, was accounted ‘an admirable display’ by Wisden . At Leyton towards the end of August, Perrin achieved the best bowling return of his first-class career when he took three Northamptonshire wickets for thirteen. Essex were without J.W.H.T.Douglas who had influenza, W.Reeves and C.P.Buckenham, and their bowling resources were thus distinctly limited. Perrin’s victims were G.J.Thompson, C.N.Woolley and S.T.Askham. There appears to be no Press report of Perrin’s methods though he was unlikely to be above medium pace. The magazine World of Cricket said that this was ‘quite the best bowling feat in a career in which he has not often been requisitioned for the attack.’ The national newspapers were more concerned with the unopposed arrival of German troops in Brussels. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 342. Essex v Sussex, Hove, May 11, 12, 13 (Sussex won by nine wickets) [4] b R.R.Relf 41† 154 401 [4] c E.H.Bowley b R.R.Relf 74† 312 66-1 51