James Horace Parks (12 May 1903 – 21 November 1980) was a cricketer who played for Sussex County Cricket Club and

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 ...

. Parks was a right-handed opening batsman and a medium-pace bowler of inswingers. He was a regular member of the Sussex county team from 1927 and scored 1,000 runs in every season except one up to 1939, when his first-class career ended with the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1935, he did the all-rounder's "

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, but nothing in Parks' career suggested he was an out-of-the-ordinary county cricketer — until 1937. In that year, by scoring 3,003 runs and taking 101 wickets in the season, he set a record that is all but certainly never to be equalled. Only 13 cricketers have scored more than 2,000 runs and taken 100 wickets in an English season; no other cricketer has ever taken 100 wickets while scoring 3,000 runs. His run total included 11 centuries and he also took 21 catches. Having earlier in his career been termed "solid", Parks revealed in 1937 a full range of previously unsuspected strokes and was praised by ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' for his "enterprise". Parks was called up for the 1937

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

against

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 ...

at Lord's alongside another debutant,

Leonard Hutton Sir Leonard Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. ''Wisden Cricketer ...

.Cricinfo: New Zealand in England Test Series - 1st Test, 1937 season
/ref> He scored 22 and 7 and took three wickets, but was never chosen again. Unsurprisingly, he was a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1938. After the Second World War II, Parks played Lancashire League cricket and he was coach at Sussex for a period in the 1960s.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Jim English cricketers England Test cricketers Sussex cricketers Canterbury cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Players cricketers English cricket umpires English cricket coaches People from Haywards Heath 1903 births 1980 deaths Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team

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