James Michael Parks (21 October 1931 – 31 May 2022) 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 st ...

er. He played in forty-six

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

for

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 ...

, between 1954 and 1968. In those Tests, Parks scored 1,962 runs with a personal best of 108 not out, and took 103 catches and made 11 stumpings.

Early life

Parks was born in

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, Cra ...

on 21 October 1931. His father, Jim Sr., was a prolific

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

and played once for England in 1937, while his uncle,

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

, played over 400 games for Sussex. Parks attended Hove County Grammar School for Boys.

Career

Parks was an attacking batsman, athletic fieldsman and a spin bowler who made his first-class debut for

in 1949. By 1958, and with Sussex struggling for a reliable stopper, Parks made a successful switch to wicketkeeping. Parks describes the unusual circumstances in which he first began keeping wicket:

It came about by accident. I didn't keep wicket at the start of my career. I was a specialist batsman. A couple of years after that, Sussex were playing against Essex in a Championship game at Chelmsford, when our wicketkeeper, Rupert Webb got injured. There we were in the Chelmsford dressing room before the start of play and we suddenly realised we've got no wicketkeeper. Robin Marlar, the Sussex captain, looked at me and said "You're doing it". I didn't have any kit and so had to borrow Essex keeper Brian Taylor's gloves.

Prior to that, in 1954, Parks had been picked, purely as a batsman, for one Test against

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at the age of 22. He made little impact and had to wait until early in 1960 to score an unbeaten century, batting at number seven, to help England gain a draw and clinch the series whilst touring the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. He then remained England's first choice wicket-keeper through to the mid-1960s. In the 1965–66 Ashes series he made 290 runs (48.33) and hit his fair share of boundaries, but a missed stumping off Peter Burge in the Second Test cost England a chance of regaining the urn. The cricket writer Colin Bateman commented, "Parks was a gifted batsman and a most effective wicketkeeper". Bateman added "although he never suggested he was in the same class as Godfrey Evans before him or

Alan Knott Alan Philip Eric Knott (born 9 April 1946) is a former cricketer who represented England at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). Knott is widely regarded as one of the most eccentric characters in cricket and as ...

after, Parks had safe hands and was a good stopper". Parks captained Sussex from 1967 to 1968, before he was succeeded by Mike Griffith. He left Sussex following the 1972 season, and joined

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

on a three-year contract. He retired from first-class cricket in 1976. In 739 first-class matches, he scored 36,673 runs at an average of 34.76, with 51 hundreds and 213 fifties. He took 1,087 catches and made 92 stumpings. He also took 51 wickets, with a personal best of 3 for 23.

Later life

After retiring from cricket, Parks was employed by

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

. He subsequently went back to Sussex to be its marketing manager and went on to serve two terms as club president starting in 2013. He also acted as manager of the Old England cricket team for several years. From August 2021 until his death, Parks was the oldest surviving male England Test cricketer.

Personal life and death

Parks was married to Jenny (née Rogers) from 1973 until his death. His previous marriages, to Irene Young and then Ann Wembridge, both ended in divorce. He had three children with Irene, Andrew (d. 2004),

Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a constabl ...

, who played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for both

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

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and Louise. Parks died on the morning of 31 May 2022 at

Worthing Hospital Worthing Hospital is a medium-sized District General Hospital (DGH) located in Worthing, West Sussex, England. It is managed by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. History Worthing's first hospital was a dispensary created in 182 ...

. He was 90, and suffered a fall at his home in the week prior to his death.

Citations

General and cited references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Jim 1931 births 2022 deaths A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in England Combined Services cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers of 1946 to 1968 English cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers People educated at Hove Grammar School People from Haywards Heath Players cricketers Sussex cricket captains Sussex cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers Wicket-keepers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Somerset cricketers