Perrin Percy Image 1 Essex 1904

Description

Born in Stoke Newington, Percy Perrin first played for Essex as a right-handed, middle-order batsman in 1896 and persisted for more than thirty years, having originally played club cricket at Tottenham, not retiring until 1928 when already 52. He and Charles McGahey, a similarly tall amateur, played together for Essex for many seasons and were known as the “Essex Twins”. McGahey was also an accomplished footballer, who like Perrin also played football for Tottenham Hotspur. If McGahey was undoubtedly the better footballer, Perrin was the better batsman, scoring 1,000 runs in 18 seasons and in his long career making 29,709 runs at an average just short of 36 runs per innings. He scored 66 centuries and 152 half centuries. He rarely bowled but took 16 wickets with a best of 3-13, and over 538 first class matches he took 293 catches. He played in a record number of matches for an amateur player in English cricket.

A tall batsman who initially relied on driving for most of his runs, Perrin developed into a reliable player with virtually all the strokes, CB Fry described him as “he of the languid off-drive”. Perrin’s biggest innings was a huge unbeaten 343, made out of an Essex total of 597 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1904, which is the highest innings ever played by a batsman in a losing team. Another record statistic from that innings, the 68 fours hit, gives a clue why Perrin was never selected for Test cricket, or even for one of the representative matches such as Gentlemen v Players: he was slow in the field and not a good runner. On the strength of that innings, though, he was picked as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1905 almanack.

Perrin captained Essex only occasionally, serving happily under his friends McGahey and Johnny Douglas and deputising for them when needed. But in retirement, Perrin’s knowledge and his availability led him to become an England selector in 1926 and later from 1930 to 1939, chairing the committee in the last year.

As a footballer, Percy Perrin was associated with Tottenham Hotspur and played at least once for their first team during 1893-94.