Percival Albert Perrin (26 May 1876 – 20 November 1945), known as either "Percy" or "Peter", 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 Essex as a right-handed middle-order batsman for more than thirty years from 1896. Perrin was a Tottenham publican and a property developer who organised his considerable business activities around his cricket, turning out for Essex regularly from 1896 to 1926, and not retiring until 1928. His total of 496 County Championship matches for Essex is a record for an

amateur player Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time they spend competi ...

in English cricket. A tall batsman who initially relied on driving for most of his runs, Perrin developed into a reliable player with virtually all the strokes. He and

Charles McGahey Charles Percy McGahey (12 February 1871 – 10 January 1935) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex between 1894 and 1921. McGahey also played for London County between 1901 and 1904 and was named as one of the Wisde ...

, a similarly tall amateur, played together for Essex for many seasons and were known as the "Essex Twins". Perrin was the better batsman: he scored 1,000 in 18 seasons and in his long career made 29,709 runs at an average just short of 36 runs per innings. He scored 66 centuries, the third highest number – after John Langridge and

Ken McEwan Kenneth Scott McEwan (born 16 July 1952 at Bedford, Eastern Cape, Bedford, South Africa), is a former cricketer who played principally for Eastern Province cricket team, Eastern Province and Essex County Cricket Club, Essex. A right-handed middl ...

– of any player who never played Test cricket. 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 almanack for 1905. Apparently a shy man, Perrin captained Essex only occasionally, serving happily under his friends McGahey and Johnny Douglas and deputising for them when needed. But in retirement, Perrin's knowledge and his availability led him to become an England selector in 1926 and later from 1930 to 1939, chairing the committee in the last year. When

E. M. Wellings Evelyn Maitland "Lyn" Wellings (6 April 1909 – 10 September 1992) was an Egyptian-born English cricketer and journalist, who played for Oxford University and Surrey. Life and career Lyn Wellings was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father ...

asked Douglas Jardine about how he regarded the selectors, Jardine replied, "We used to let Percy Perrin in the dressing-room, but he used to sit at the end of the balcony and keep quiet; but we wouldn't let any of the others in."

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Percy 1876 births 1945 deaths British publicans East of England cricketers English cricketers England cricket team selectors Essex cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers London County cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers People from Stoke Newington People from Hickling, Norfolk Wisden Cricketers of the Year English cricketers of 1890 to 1918 English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Wembley Park cricketers