Francis David Parr (1 June 1928 – 8 May 2012) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trombonist The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

with the Mick Mulligan Band.''Daily Telegraph'' obituary published 4 June 2012
Retrieved 4 June 2012
Retrieved 4 June 2012

Early life

Parr was born at

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

and went to the local

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, where as well as showing promise as a cricketer he was a fine

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

. While still at school he began playing the trombone with the Merseysippi Jazz Band.

Cricket

Parr played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

as a

wicketkeeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

and a lower-order batsman, in his career of 49 matches spanning from 1951 to 1954.

Herbert Strudwick Herbert Strudwick (28 January 1880 – 14 February 1970) was an English wicket-keeper. His record of 1,493 dismissals is the third-highest by any wicket-keeper in the history of first-class cricket. Biography Born in Mitcham, Surrey, Strudwic ...

said that he was "the most promising keeper I've seen in years", and in 1952 he was tipped to play for England. At the end of the following season, he was almost selected for that winter's tour of the West Indies. His Lancashire teammate

Brian Statham John Brian Statham, (17 June 1930 – 10 June 2000) was an English professional cricketer from Gorton, in Manchester, who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1950 to 1968 and for England from 1951 to 1965.Nigel Howard Nigel David Howard (18 May 1925 – 31 May 1979) was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. Born in Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire, he captained England on the tour to India in 1951-52. In the only four Test matches he playe ...

, had been prepared to overlook Parr's scruffiness and laid-back approach, but in 1954

Cyril Washbrook Cyril Washbrook (6 December 1914 – 27 April 1999) was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. He had a long career, split by World War II, and ending when he was aged 44. Washbrook, who is most famous for opening the batt ...

took over the captaincy. A stricter disciplinarian than Howard, Washbrook insisted on tidier dress and better behaviour from his side, and dropped Parr after only five matches.

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

offered Parr a job, but withdrew after Washbrook wrote to warn them against employing him, saying that he could be "a grave social risk". That marked the end of his cricket career. Parr himself said: "I thought it was the end of the world. It's probably why I took up serious drinking." In his book ''Owning Up'',

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an e ...

, who performed with him in the Mick Mulligan Band, wrote that Parr's fellow band members never learned the reason for his quarrel with Washbrook, but that "after a month or two in his company we realised it must have been inevitable". He also wrote that Parr "was an extreme social rebel" who "concealed a formidable and well-read intelligence behind a stylised oafishness".

Music

Having played with the Merseysippi Jazz Band for six years, in 1956 Parr joined the Mick Mulligan Band as a full-time professional musician and moved to London. By the late 1950s, he had become a fine trombonist, though Melly said that his music was "aimed beyond his technique. Sometimes a very beautiful idea came off, more often you were aware of a beautiful idea which existed in Frank's head." The band's performances often suffered from the effects of alcohol, and Parr himself was often drunk. The band's style of revivalist "trad" jazz was becoming less popular by the end of the 1950s. In 1961 it disbanded, and Parr's career as a performer ended. He was

Acker Bilk Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) was a British clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistc ...

's manager for ten years, and subsequently worked in advertising. Later he had small parts in television shows and films, including ''

The King's Speech ''The King's Speech'' is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language ...

'' (2010). He remained a cricket enthusiast, captaining a team of jazz musicians called The Ravers and attending Lancashire Players' Association functions at Old Trafford.

References

External links

Cricinfo: Player profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parr, Frank 1928 births 2012 deaths English jazz trombonists Male trombonists English cricketers Lancashire cricketers People from Wallasey Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers British male jazz musicians Wicket-keepers