{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
T. N. Pearce's XI was a scratch
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 ...
team composed largely of
Test
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Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
and other prominent first-class players.
Between 1951 and 1974, T. N. Pearce's XI played an annual first-class match at the end of the English cricket season against the touring team. The match was part of the annual
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
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* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
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Cricket Festival and, though played in a spirit of some conviviality, it often produced highly competitive games with outstanding performances. It was usually the last first-class match of the season.
The T. N. Pearce side was selected and organised by Tom Pearce, who had captained
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
between 1933 and 1950 and was an
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
Test selector for many years after his retirement from playing. Before Pearce took on the organisation of the side, a similar match had been organised at the Scarborough Festival by H. D. G. Leveson-Gower, and before Leveson-Gower by Charles Thornton.
Further matches were played in the 1976 and 1978 seasons, but the festival then lapsed for a few years and when it was revived in the 1980s, the scratch side was first organised (and sometimes led) by
Brian Close
Dennis Brian Close, (24 February 1931 – 13 September 2015) was an English first-class cricketer. He was picked to play against New Zealand in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England, ...
and then by the TV personality
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...
.
References
*
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...