Percy Holmes

Percy Holmes
Personal information
Full name
Percy Holmes
Born(1886-11-25)25 November 1886
Oakes, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
Died3 September 1971(1971-09-03) (aged 84)
Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
International information
National side
Test debut28 May 1921 v Australia
Last Test25 June 1932 v India
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 7 555
Runs scored 357 30,573
Batting average 27.46 42.11
100s/50s 0/4 67/141
Top score 88 315*
Balls bowled 252
Wickets 2
Bowling average 92.50
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 1/5
Catches/stumpings 3/– 342/–
Source: CricInfo, 19 November 2022

Percy Holmes (25 November 1886 – 3 September 1971) was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire and England.[1]

Holmes was born in Oakes, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. An opening batsman and a fine fielder, Holmes was a late developer who played only a handful of matches for Yorkshire before World War I, but came to immediate prominence after it with 1,886 runs and five centuries in 1919. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1920.

With Herbert Sutcliffe, Holmes formed for fifteen seasons the most prolific opening partnership in first-class cricket, and 69 times they put on 100 runs or more for the first wicket. Their partnership culminated, in 1932 against Essex at Leyton, in a then-world-record stand of 555, beating the previous Yorkshire (and world) record by Brown and Tunnicliffe in 1898 by just one run. Holmes contributed an unbeaten 224 to the partnership, which remained the world-record first-wicket partnership for 44 years. It is still the highest partnership for any wicket in English domestic cricket, and the fifth-highest ever for any wicket in the world.

According to Neville Cardus, Holmes was a jaunty, restless character who believed cricket should be fun. He tended to score quickly and to play shots, such as cuts and pulls, that "more correct" batsmen such as Sutcliffe rarely used.[2]

  1. ^ Warner, David (2011). The Yorkshire County Cricket Club: 2011 Yearbook (113th ed.). Ilkley, Yorkshire: Great Northern Books. p. 371. ISBN 978-1-905080-85-4.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).