Perrin Percy Image 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1899

Description

Born in Stoke Newington, as a footballer, Percy Perrin was associated with Tottenham Hotspur and played at least once for their first team during 1893-94. At the same time he was playing club cricket in Tottenham and it is as a cricketer that he is well known, playing for Essex as a right-handed, middle-order batsman for more than thirty years from 1896, 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 also played for Tottenham Hotspur.

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.