16 Facts About Cec Parkin

Cecil Harry Parkin, known as Cec or Ciss Parkin, was an English cricketer who played in 10 Test matches between 1920 and 1924 and made 157 appearances for Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Cec Parkin then joined Lancashire and played at Old Trafford from 1914 to 1926, although four of these years were lost to the Great War.

Cec Parkin was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1924.

Cec Parkin was a mercurial, inventive off spinner who used flight, guile and turn to dismiss batsman and demanded attacking fields from his captains.

Cec Parkin could be expensive, as he disdained any policy of containment against good batsmen on flat pitches and was criticised for over experimentation, but at his best he could run through any side.

Cec Parkin took 14 Leicestershire County Cricket Club wickets on his debut for the Red Rose at Liverpool in 1914, when he was already 28, and did not become a full-time cricketer until the age of 34 in 1921, the year he topped the Test averages against Warwick Armstrong's mighty Australian side.

Cec Parkin took 14 wickets in the 1919 Roses Match at Old Trafford at just 10 apiece and, in the first innings of the Gentlemen v Players match of 1920 dismissed 9 Gentlemen at the Oval, six clean bowled, for 85.

Cec Parkin was picked for England's tour of Australia that winter and took 5 for 60 in the first innings at Adelaide in a difficult rubber for the England team.

Cec Parkin was England's most successful bowler in all first-class games on the tour however, with 73 at 21 each.

Cec Parkin is one of the few players to have opened both the bowling and batting, against Australia at Old Trafford, for England, a remarkable performance by a spin bowler who played only 10 games.

Cec Parkin was known as a great character in the dressing room but his outspoken views often saw him clash with the cricketing authorities of the time.

Cec Parkin was dropped from the England team when he criticised England Captain Arthur Gilligan in a newspaper article and fell out with the Lancashire Committee two years later which ended his first-class career.

Cec Parkin was Lancashire's best bowler in 1923, taking 209 wickets at 16.94, and 1924,200 at just 13.67, but in 1925 took 'only' 121 wickets at 20.79.

Cec Parkin was equally unorthodox and inventive as a batsman, if rather less skilled, but plucky even if a risky runner between the wickets.

Cec Parkin wrote lively accounts of his cricketing days and was, characteristically, a talented conjurer and magician.

Cec Parkin used to experiment with new deliveries by bowling them at his wife in the nets and occasionally sent her home with bruised fingers.