CB Fry

C. B. Fry

Personal information
Full name	Charles Burgess Fry
Born	(1872-04-25)25 April 1872 Croydon, England
Died	7 September 1956(1956-09-07) (aged 84) Hampstead, London, England
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm fast-medium
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 95)	13 February 1896 v South Africa
Last Test	22 August 1912 v Australia
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1921–1922	Europeans (India)
1909–1921	Hampshire
1894–1908	Sussex
1900–1902	London County
1892–1895	Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 26 394 Runs scored 1,223 30,886 Batting average 32.18 50.22 100s/50s 2/7 94/124 Top score 144 258* Balls bowled 10 9,036 Wickets 0 166 Bowling average – 29.34 5 wickets in innings – 9 10 wickets in match – 2 Best bowling – 6/78 Catches/stumpings 17/– 239/–
Source: Cricinfo, 12 November 2008

C. B. Fry

Personal information
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Full-back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1891–1903	Corinthian
1900–1902	Southampton	16	(0)
1902–1903	Portsmouth	2	(0)
National team
1901	England	1	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Charles Burgess Fry, known as C. B. Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956), was an English sportsman, politician, diplomat, academic, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could be autocratic, angry and self-willed: he was also magnanimous, extravagant, generous, elegant, brilliant – and fun ... he was probably the most variously gifted Englishman of any age."

Fry's achievements on the sporting field included representing England at both cricket and football, an FA Cup Final appearance for Southampton F.C. and equalling the then-world record for the long jump. He also reputedly turned down the throne of Albania. In later life, he suffered mental health problems, but even well into his seventies he claimed he was still able to perform his party trick: leaping from a stationary position backwards onto a mantelpiece.

C. B. Fry was born in Croydon; the son of a civil servant. Both sides of his family had once been wealthy, but by 1872 were not as prosperous. After winning a scholarship, Fry was educated at Repton School and then at Wadham College, Oxford. His greatest strength academically was in the Classics. At Repton he won the school prizes for Latin Verse, Greek Verse, Latin Prose and French. He was also runner-up in German. His weakest subject was mathematics; he gained the headmaster's permission to study Thucydides instead and dispensed with maths for the rest of his academic career.

Repton has a strong tradition in football and Fry played for the under-16 Repton football side in his first term, aged thirteen. Fry went on to captain both the school's cricket and football teams, and also won prizes for athletics. At the age of sixteen he played for the Casuals in the F.A. Cup.

Having won a further scholarship to study at Wadham College, Oxford, he won his university Blue in football, cricket and athletics, but narrowly failed to win a Blue in rugby union, because of an injury. Fry's status brought him into the orbit of people whose fame was already spreading far beyond Oxford, such as Max Beerbohm, the writer and caricaturist.