Percy Robert "Phil" May (13 March 1884 – 6 December 1965) was an English

cricketer 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 ...

who 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 ...

from 1902 to 1910, and a final match in 1926.

Life and career

May was born to Henry and Emma May in

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, where Henry worked as a butler. A fast bowler, Percy played for London County in 1902 at the age of 18, and occasionally for

. After being privately educated, May went up to

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

in the autumn of 1902. He played cricket for the university side from 1903 to 1906, taking part in victories over

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1905 and 1906. In 1906 he bowled unchanged throughout both innings to take 7 for 41 and 5 for 25 in Cambridge's 305-run victory over

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

Fenner's Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground. History Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orchar ...

. He opened the bowling for the Gentlemen against the Players later that year, taking seven wickets, more than any other bowler. He finished the season with 75 wickets at an average of 22.76, his most successful season. He also won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

at Cambridge for

Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, and toured the US with the

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

in 1906. He toured

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with MCC in 1906-07, taking 45 wickets in nine first-class matches at 15.97 and forming a powerful pace attack with

Johnny Douglas John William Henry Tyler Douglas (3 September 1882 – 19 December 1930) was an English cricketer who was active in the early decades of the twentieth century. Douglas was an all-rounder who played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1901 to ...

, who took 50 wickets at 13.26. He took 5 for 53 and 5 for 37 in the first victory over

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

(by 232 runs) and 4 for 49 and 4 for 58 in the second victory (by an innings and 95 runs), and played in both matches against

, taking eight wickets. He wrote an account of the tour based on his diary, titled ''With the MCC in New Zealand'' (1907), which a New Zealand reviewer found "a very readable story ... which I was loth to put down ... the 'behind-the-scenes' life of an English amateur cricketer on tour ... makes for good and entertaining reading". Among the New Zealanders there was some question about the legitimacy of his bowling action;

Dick Brittenden Richard Trevor Brittenden (22 August 1919 – 10 June 2002) was from the 1950s to the 1980s New Zealand's most prominent cricket writer. Early life, family and career Brittenden was born at Rakaia on 22 August 1919, and was educated at Christc ...

later described him as "a fast bowler with a peculiar leap just before delivery, and whose action was suspect". He played a few matches in 1907, with one outstanding performance for Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South at the

Hastings Festival The Central Recreation Ground was a cricket ground in Hastings, East Sussex, used for first-class and List A cricket between 1864 and 1996. The ground was frequently used by Sussex County Cricket Club as one of their outgrounds from 1865; ...

, when he took 8 for 49 and 3 for 69 in a 233-run victory. After that he took a job as a teacher in England and played little first-class cricket. May spent the years from 1910 to 1950 in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, managing the 2500-acre Dalkeith rubber plantation at Latpandura in the

Kalutara District Kalutara District ( si, කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය; ta, களுத்துறை மாவட்டம் ''Kaḷuttuṟai Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative ...

. He was a regular club cricketer for most of his time in Ceylon, and played in the annual match for Europeans against Ceylonese in 1911, 1912 and 1914. After suffering a shoulder injury not long after he arrived in Ceylon he was forced to abandon fast bowling and instead became a skilful

underarm The axilla (also, armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and the thoracic cage, bounded superiorl ...

spin bowler and batsman. He served briefly as President of the Ceylon Cricket Association. May married Ursula Loughnan in 1913. After they returned from Ceylon they retired to

Alverstoke Alverstoke is a small settlement which forms part of the borough of Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It stretches east–west from Fort Blockhouse, Haslar to Browndown Battery, and is centred east of the shore of Stokes Bay and ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. He died in hospital at

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

in December 1965.

References

External links

Percy May
at CricketArchive

at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Percy 1884 births 1965 deaths English cricketers London County cricketers Surrey cricketers Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Sportspeople from Chertsey Cricketers from Surrey