First-class cricketer who did not bat, did not bowl, did not field

by Abhishek Mukherjee

Percy Fender had a problem. You see, only ten men had turned up for Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South for the benefit match of JJ Reid, a pavilion attendant at The Oval.

The Players batted first. The Gentlemen used a substitute, and the Players piled up 551/9, Hobbs scoring a hundred and Russell, Hearne, Hendren, Sandham all getting fifties. Fender himself took 3/114.

Now, to make up the numbers, Fender summoned Percy Herbert, a club cricketer at Brighton. Herbert was a brother of Lily, Fender's mother. Herbert duly arrived before play began on Day 2.

Unfortunately, it rained so heavily that no more cricket was possible in the match.

Herbert never played another First-Class match. There have been cricketers who have not batted or bowled, or even fielded in their careers. But Herbert remains, to my knowledge, the only cricketer who never got to see his First-Class career.

The match started on 3 July 1920