Fuller Pilch
Fuller Pilch (
March 17,
1804,
Horningtoft,
Norfolk -
May 1,
1870,
Canterbury,
Kent) was an English cricketer and is generally considered as the finest batsman of his time.
Pilch played his first major match at
Lord's in 1820, appearing for Norfolk. In the early days he made his living as a tailor.
Writing in 1862 in his
Scores and biographies,
Arthur Haygarth called Pilch 'the best batsman that has ever yet appeared'. The main characteristic of Pilch's batting was his forward play, a shot that was called 'Pilch's poke'. Haygarth further wrote :
His style of batting was very commanding, extremely forward, and he seemed to rush to the best bowling by his long forward play before it had time to shoot or rise, or do mischief by catches.
By the late 1820s he had become the finest batsman in England. He appeared 23 times in
Gentlemen v Players matches. In
1833, in highly publicised single wicket matches, he twice defeated
Tom Marsden, the other prominent batsman of the time. In
1835, he moved to Town Malling in Kent and received a salary of 100 pounds a year. There he kept a tavern attached to the cricket ground.
Pilch moved to Canterbury in
1842 where he kept the
Saracen's Head. He served as the first groundsman of the St. Lawrence Ground from
1847 to
1868.
As to the question of how Pilch would compare with the man who succeeded him, Wisden editor
Sydney Pardon wrote in
W.G. Grace's obituary in the 1916 Wisden,
'A story is told of a cricketer who had regarded Fuller Pilch as the final word in batting, being taken in his old age to see Mr. Grace bat for the first time. He watched the great man for a quarter of an hour or so and then broke out into an expression of boundless delight. 'Why', he said, 'this man scores continuously from balls that old Fuller would have been thankful to stop'.* Philip Bailey, Philip Thorn, and Peter Wynne-Thomas,
Who's Who of Cricketers*
Horningtoft Heritage Society Site* Wisden obituary of WG Grace
*
Cricketarchive profile*
Cricinfo profile
