Foxes Flashback - Charles Palmer
Fri 15 May 2020
Foxes Flashback - Charles Palmer
Who was the most influential person in the history of Leicestershire CCC? Sounds like the start of a twitter poll! There will always be debate about this. If my own ‘unsung hero’ would be Sir Lindsay Everard, who rescued us from oblivion in the 1930s, you could really do no better than Charles Palmer, born 101 years ago today.
When he signed a seven year contract with the club, he had not yet played a full season of first class cricket and not scored what was in those days the basic, 1000 runs in a season. A schoolmaster at Bromsgrove School, he had no first hand experience of cricket administration. He was though, well thought of at Lord’s and had toured South Africa with MCC without breaking into the test team.
In the curious world that was English cricket in the 15 years after World War Two, Charles was paid to be Club Secretary so that he could continue to play (and captain) the side as an amateur. In fact he was paid the salary of two players.
Charles took over a team close to mutiny, and as secretary, minimal support. What he did have was the support of a determined management committee. The highlight of his 8 years in charge was the brief (3 days) leadership of the County Championship table and eventual 3rd position in 1953, then the best season in the county’s history. There were also two other highly respectable 6th places…and two ‘wooden spoons’.
He safely scored a thousand runs in each season, and 2,071 in 1952, and a top score of 201 against Northamptonshire in 1953.
