Charlie Parker (cricketer)
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Warrington Leonard Parker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
14 October 1882 Prestbury, Gloucestershire |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 11 July 1959 (aged 76) Cranleigh, Surrey |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Slow left-arm orthodox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charles Warrington Leonard "Charlie" Parker (14 October 1882, Prestbury, Gloucestershire – 11 July 1959, Cranleigh, Surrey) was an English cricketer, who stands as the third highest wicket taker in the history of first-class cricket, behind Wilfred Rhodes and Tich Freeman.
Parker took no serious attention to cricket in his childhood, preferring to concentrate on golf. He only took to cricket around 1900 and was recommended to Gloucestershire by W. G. Grace in 1903. However, he played only twice in first-class cricket before 1907. From then on, he played regularly, and despite several excellent performances, he was always overshadowed by George Dennett until World War I put a halt to county cricket. By 1914, Parker had not taken 100 wickets in a season and his last two years had been very expensive, suggesting that his was to be an insignificant career.
In 1919, with Dennett serving as an officer in the Army, Parker was forced to become Gloucestershire's chief bowler. He took more wickets than ever before in a season, but he was still expensive even when the dry weather was taken into account. However, from 1920 Parker became one of the best left arm spin bowlers in England. A little quicker than most of his type (thus harder to hit), on rain affected or crumbling pitches he was almost unplayable due to his vicious spin which could hit off stump from outside leg. Though helped by appalling batting sides for much of his success, Parker took 125 wickets in 1920, 167 in 1921, 206 in 1922, 204 in 1924, and headed the first-class averages with 222 in 1925.
This success reflected Parker's ability to get through huge amounts of bowling; such as over 85 per cent of Gloucestershire's overs (from one end) in 1927.
...
Wikipedia