Famous Cricketers No 95 - P.A.Perrin

359. Essex v Northamptonshire, Leyton, August 22, 24, 25 (Match drawn) [4] c A.D.Denton b J.S.Denton 39 316 10.2 6 13 3 G.J.Thompson b 373 C.N.Woolley c H.A.Carpenter S.T.Askham c G.B.Davies [5] c G.J.Thompson b W.East 0 358 5 2 10 0 227-8 360. Essex v Hampshire, Bournemouth, August 27, 28, 29 (Hampshire won by an innings and 19 runs) [4] c C.P.Mead b H.C.McDonell 12 162 352 [4] lbw b J.A.Newman 28 171 361. Essex v Somerset, Weston-super-Mare, August 31, September 1 (Essex won by ten wickets) [4] lbw b J.C.White 14 235 2 0 8 0 141 did not bat - 38-0 3 0 16 0 130 1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct County Championship 20 34 2 1261 126 39.40 2 7 15 Career 361 631 56 22258 343* 38.70 56 110 191 Bowling O M R W BB Ave County Championship (6b) 20.2 8 47 3 3-13 15.66 Career (6b) 154 32 } 647 14 3-13 46.21 (5b) 33 5 1919 The fixtures for the first post-war season were hastily put together following the decisions of ‘the Advisory’ in December 1918 and February 1919 that Championship matches would be played over longer hours on two days only. The Essex side, with its sparse bowling resources and placid Leyton home pitch, was as might be expected particularly unsuited to two-day matches played in warm dry weather. Twelve of the county’s eighteen Championship matches were drawn, and the side, captained by Lt-Col Douglas, finished the season fourteenth out of fifteen. In other years such a poor return would have produced criticism of the Essex committee, but it would seem that supporters were simply glad that county cricket had restarted. Wisden described the apparently ‘rank-free’ Perrin as ‘wonderful: returning to first-class cricket at the age of forty-three, he played as if there had been no war to check his career’. Although he had played only rarely in war-time matches at Leyton, he was successful from the outset. Appearing in fifteen matches he scored 850 runs and finished sixteenth in the national averages. At the start of the season he was posted at number five in the batting order, allowing Lt-Col W.M.F.Turner to bat at four, but he regained his old number four position after five matches. Against Kent, led by Lt-Col L.H.W.Troughton, at Leyton in early June, ‘playing as finely as in his best seasons before the War’, he scored a century in each innings for the fourth time. The Times thought him the complete master of the Kent bowlers. At the time only C.B.Fry and G.L.Jessop, names far more illustrious than Perrin, had achieved this feat as often. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 362. Essex v Australian Imperial Forces, Leyton, May 17, 19 (Australian Imperial Forces won by an innings and 114 runs) [5] b C.Kelleway 9 169 434 [5] not out 43† 151 363. Essex v Surrey, Kennington Oval, May 24, 26 (Match drawn) [5] lbw b T.Rushby 33 301 - - - - 221 1 [5] not out 43 112-4 1 0 4 0 259-7d 1 364. Essex v Lancashire, Leyton, May 30, 31 (Essex won by nine wickets) [5] lbw b J.D.Tyldesley 0 145 180 2 did not bat - 140-1 103 53