Percy George Herbert Fender was an English cricketer who played 13 Tests for his country and was captain of Surrey between 1921 and 1931.
111 Facts About Percy Fender
2.
Percy Fender's captaincy inspired the team to challenge strongly for the County Championship over the course of several seasons, despite a shortage of effective bowlers.
3.
Alongside his forceful though sometimes controversial leadership, Percy Fender was an effective performer with bat and ball, although he lacked support as a bowler.
4.
Percy Fender continued working well into the 1970s, even after going blind.
5.
At St Paul's, Percy Fender began to attract attention as a cricketer.
6.
Percy Fender's success led to his selection for a representing Public Schools XI against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's.
7.
The dispute concerned a cricket match which Percy Fender had played without parental permission, and his father was unhappy that cricket was taking precedence over academic studies.
8.
Percy Fender was removed from the school immediately; he still came top of the batting averages for 1910 but although selected, he was not allowed to play at Lord's that summer as he was no longer a schoolboy.
9.
Percy Fender played one other game that season, against Worcestershire, where he was shaken by the pace of two opposing bowlers.
10.
Percy Fender remained in Horwich at the start of the 1911 cricket season and played several times for Manchester Cricket Club.
11.
Percy Fender was on the verge of selection for Lancashire when he had to return to Brighton.
12.
Percy Fender followed this by taking five for 42 against Surrey.
13.
In 1913, Percy Fender was a regular member of the Sussex county side.
14.
Percy Fender initially wanted to be a barrister, but his family could not afford the costs.
15.
Percy Fender disagreed, suggesting that the influential contacts made in county cricket offset the lost working time.
16.
Percy Fender was qualified by his birthplace to play for Surrey, and the county was eager to register him for the County Championship.
17.
Percy Fender attended to business matters before and after each day's play, and often combined Surrey's trips to away matches with business meetings.
18.
Socially, Percy Fender became a familiar figure in clubs and at the theatre.
19.
Percy Fender became friends with the actor Jack Hulbert and developed an interest in musical theatre, for which he provided financial support; he wrote lyrics for some songs.
20.
Percy Fender took a hat-trick in his second game, and scored a century in his fifth, to establish his popularity with the Surrey crowds.
21.
Immediately following the cancellation of county cricket in 1914, Percy Fender enlisted in the army, joining the Inns of Court Regiment.
22.
Percy Fender was initially stationed in London, where he was involved in work repelling Zeppelin attacks, before being sent to India in 1916.
23.
Percy Fender returned to England to recover but was left weak for much of the following two years.
24.
Percy Fender played some charity cricket in 1917 and 1918, but did not return to light duties with the Royal Flying Corps until the latter year.
25.
Percy Fender remained on crutches throughout the remainder of 1918 and 1919, missing the resumption of county cricket in 1919.
26.
Years later Percy Fender stated that he had found the situation embarrassing, as he realised there were better qualified professional players who could have been appointed instead.
27.
Percy Fender led the team to victory in his first two matches in charge, and ten of his first twelve games.
28.
Percy Fender consequently withdrew for two crucial games, and allowed Fender to captain the side.
29.
That year Surrey had few effective bowlers; Percy Fender was the leading wicket-taker with 109 wickets in County Championship games.
30.
Percy Fender's captaincy was very effective; his flair, quick-wittedness, and willingness to use unconventional tactics were most unusual at the time.
31.
Several games were won by Surrey after Percy Fender used unorthodox methods to force the pace.
32.
Percy Fender was dropped early on but batting in a carefree, highly aggressive style, reached 100 runs in 35 minutes, as of 2021 still the fastest individual century on record in first-class cricket.
33.
Percy Fender was included in the team, and the press regarded his selection as a formality.
34.
Percy Fender played infrequently and with little success during the early part of the tour.
35.
Percy Fender was eventually selected for the third Test; Jack Hearne was unavailable owing to illness, and Fender had recently been successful in a tour game.
36.
The tour manager Frederick Toone had suggested that Percy Fender should replace Douglas as captain, an idea which had the support of two of the team's leading professionals, but Douglas refused.
37.
Percy Fender made his Test debut on 14 January 1921 but achieved little with bat or ball, partly owing to his lack of match practice in the preceding weeks.
38.
Percy Fender dropped a catch from Charles Kelleway, who went on to score 147 runs.
39.
Nevertheless, Percy Fender retained his place in the team for the remainder of the series.
40.
Percy Fender led the English Test bowling averages with 12 wickets at an average of 34.16, and was the only England spin bowler to make the ball turn on the hard Australian pitches, though he was not particularly accurate.
41.
Percy Fender was barracked several times by the crowds when reports reached Australia of his newspaper columns; occasionally, the crowds chanted "Please Go Home Percy Fender", making a play on his initials.
42.
Percy Fender made light of this, joining in by conducting the barrackers.
43.
On his way home, Percy Fender wrote an account of the tour which was published as Defending the Ashes.
44.
Percy Fender began the season poorly and was not picked for the first three Tests, all of which were won by Australia.
45.
Percy Fender began to take wickets consistently in the middle of the season, and scored a century in the Gentlemen v Players match, so he was chosen for the fourth Test.
46.
Percy Fender scored 44 not out and took two for 30 in the game.
47.
The final match was a rain-ruined draw; Percy Fender retained his place but had little success.
48.
Percy Fender later said that he learned a great deal from Warwick Armstrong's captaincy of the Australians.
49.
Wisden praised Percy Fender's intelligent handling of his modest bowling resources, and stated that much of Surrey's success came from his captaincy.
50.
Percy Fender took the brave decision to include a lob bowler, Trevor Molony, in three games; lob bowling had practically died out from first-class cricket by this time, and Molony was the last specialist underarm bowler selected in county cricket.
51.
Percy Fender took 53 catches to become the first cricketer to pass 50 catches while completing the double; as of 2021, only Peter Walker has done so.
52.
Percy Fender completed the double in 1922 with 1,169 runs and 157 wickets, Surrey finished third in the Championship, and the lack of effective bowling hindered the team.
53.
Percy Fender bowled mainly leg spin, but often bowled successfully at medium pace.
54.
The first time he wore glasses, Percy Fender scored 185 in 130 minutes against Hampshire.
55.
Late in the season, Percy Fender was involved in a public dispute with Lord Harris over the qualification of Alfred Jeacocke to play for Surrey.
56.
Percy Fender began in good batting form, scoring 96 in the first match, and he passed fifty on two other occasions, including an uncharacteristically defensive innings of 60 in the third Test, but his batting faded as the tour progressed.
57.
Percy Fender was generally successful as a bowler, but proved expensive in the Tests.
58.
Percy Fender played in all five Tests, scoring 128 runs at an average of 14.22 and taking 10 wickets at 41.80, while in all first-class games, he scored 459 runs at 22.95 and took 58 wickets at 19.58.
59.
In 1923 Percy Fender enjoyed his best all-round season, scoring 1,427 runs and taking 178 wickets.
60.
Again, there were no Test matches, but Percy Fender played in two Test trials.
61.
Percy Fender was successful in the first match, taking six for 44 and scoring 49 runs, but his performance was overshadowed by continued controversy over the captaincy; Fender was not asked to captain a side in either match.
62.
At that time it was usual for amateurs and professionals to enter the field of play from different gates; Percy Fender's habit was to use the same gate as his professionals.
63.
Percy Fender's batting continued to be effective, but he demonstrated a more restrained approach and improved his defence.
64.
Percy Fender's form dipped in 1924 after a good start with bat and ball; thereafter, despite occasional successes, he lacked consistency.
65.
Surrey finished third in the Championship, and Percy Fender contributed 1,004 runs and 84 wickets in all first-class matches.
66.
The eventual appointment of Arthur Gilligan was criticised in the press, which again speculated why Percy Fender was not chosen.
67.
Percy Fender pointed out in a letter published by the press that Lord Harris and the MCC were aware that this was common practice at the Scarborough Festival, despite their claims to the contrary.
68.
When Percy Fender next played at Lord's, the furious Lord Harris summoned Percy Fender to admonish him.
69.
Percy Fender always regretted his indiscretion and believed it finished any chance he had of the England captaincy.
70.
Percy Fender played in the first two Tests, without much success, and was dropped; he played only one more Test in his career.
71.
Percy Fender was married at the end of the 1924 cricket season, and in the off-season wrote about the MCC tour of Australia for the Daily Express.
72.
In 1925, Percy Fender returned to his best form, completing the double with 1,042 runs and 137 wickets.
73.
However, Streeton believes that by this stage, Percy Fender was never likely to be chosen; he played in a Test trial match and for the Gentlemen against the Players, but Greville Stevens was preferred in the England team.
74.
Percy Fender failed to reach 1,000 runs in 1927, although his average of 31.96 was his best for five seasons; he took 89 wickets at 25.75.
75.
Percy Fender went on to take seven wickets in 19 balls; his final analysis was seven for 10.
76.
Percy Fender was less successful with the ball: in 1928 he took 110 wickets but his bowling average rose to 28, and took 88 wickets at an average of over 30 in 1929.
77.
Percy Fender played fewer matches than in previous seasons, as he was writing on the Tests for a newspaper; in the 1930 season, he scored 700 runs and took 65 wickets.
78.
Percy Fender did not cover the tour as a journalist, as his newspaper sent Jack Hobbs instead.
79.
Percy Fender later insisted that his role was minor in creating the strategy, but he was close to both Jardine and Arthur Carr, who discussed the plans before the tour began; some writers suggested that the original idea was Percy Fender's.
80.
Early in 1931 Percy Fender offered to resign as Surrey's captain, to give Jardine more experience of leadership before he assumed the England captaincy, but Surrey declined.
81.
Percy Fender scored 916 runs and took 84 wickets that season.
82.
Percy Fender supported Jardine's appointment, and pledged to continue playing under his captaincy.
83.
Percy Fender played less frequently in the following seasons, as his appearances were restricted by journalistic and business requirements.
84.
Percy Fender scored over 400 runs in each season between 1932 and 1935 and scored two centuries in that time, both in 1933.
85.
Rather than do so, Percy Fender preferred not to play at all, and he informed the committee that he would no longer represent the county.
86.
Percy Fender continued to play minor cricket for some time, and maintained his association with the sport for many years.
87.
Percy Fender worked in southern England with a responsibility for moving men and equipment, and was mentioned in dispatches for his role in preparations for the Allied invasion of Europe.
88.
Percy Fender travelled to Australia in 1977 to attend celebrations that marked 100 years of Test cricket and was the oldest man there.
89.
Percy Fender sent a congratulatory telegram to O'Shaughnessy and the two subsequently met, Percy Fender joking about keeping O'Shaughnessy's bat as a souvenir.
90.
Percy Fender batted with his weight mainly on his front foot and used powerful wrist-work to send the ball in different directions while playing the same stroke.
91.
Percy Fender recorded several notably powerful hits, including one which sent the ball 132 yards.
92.
The side's batting strength meant that Percy Fender rarely had to play defensively, although he could do so if the situation demanded.
93.
Percy Fender's googly was more of a top spinner and he was adept at using flight and dip, with many of his wickets being bowled or caught behind the wicket.
94.
Percy Fender gripped the ball differently from most wrist spinners, using his thumb and first two fingers, and would attempt any kind of unorthodox delivery if he thought it might be effective.
95.
Percy Fender hoped that, in his eagerness to score from an apparently innocuous ball, the batsman would mis-hit, a tactic he would often try when the batsman was playing defensively.
96.
Percy Fender possessed quick reactions and could move quickly to catch balls hit some distance from him.
97.
Percy Fender's technique was unorthodox; he crouched low when waiting for the ball with one leg stretched behind him, like a sprinter ready to begin a race.
98.
Contemporary critics believed that Percy Fender's handling of a limited bowling side while Surrey captain in the 1920s, and his achievements in taking the county to high positions in the County Championship, made him the best captain in England.
99.
Percy Fender's leadership was often specifically commented on by the press, an unusual occurrence in county cricket reports.
100.
Percy Fender used non-regular bowlers in an attempt to unsettle batsmen.
101.
One suggestion was that he was overlooked because he was Jewish, but Percy Fender said he was not Jewish and in any case did not believe this would have been a problem.
102.
Percy Fender was sometimes accused of gamesmanship, for example by persuading umpires that conditions were unfit for play until they favoured his team.
103.
Leveson Gower, wished Percy Fender to include friends and contacts whom Percy Fender did not consider worth a place in the team.
104.
Percy Fender planned to end the tradition of using separate changing rooms, until stopped by the professional Hobbs.
105.
Percy Fender made himself more unacceptable by mocking establishment figures such as Leveson Gower; a teammate later remarked that Percy Fender "was often his own worst enemy".
106.
Percy Fender believed that the controversy over his journalism in 1921 counted against him with the MCC committee.
107.
Percy Fender wrote about the 1926 series, and drew criticism from Australians when he called their sportsmanship into question.
108.
Percy Fender later wrote regularly for the Evening News and The Star; to the irritation of other journalists, he became the first man to use a typewriter in the press box.
109.
Percy Fender worked for his father's stationery business, including periods spent in France and Belgium, up until the outbreak of war in 1914, but when he returned from active service found the business frustrating.
110.
Percy Fender remarried in 1962, but his second wife, Susan Gordon, died in 1968.
111.
Percy Fender was played in the Bodyline miniseries by John Gregg.