Full name Charles Henry Palmer Role Cricket Player Name Charles Palmer | National side English | |
 | ||
Born 15 May 1919 ( 1919-05-15 ) Old Hill, Staffordshire, England Bowling style Right-arm medium/offbreak Died March 31, 2005, England, United Kingdom | ||
Batting style Right-hand bat (RHB) | ||
Charles Henry Palmer CBE (15 May 1919 – 31 March 2005) was an English cricketer, who played for Leicestershire and Worcestershire from 1938 to 1959. Palmer also played one Test match for England. He later went on to become a respected cricket administrator.
Life and career
Palmer was a small man with poor eyesight and played wearing glasses. This did not stop him becoming a fine batsman and bowler. Palmer first played cricket for Worcestershire in 1938, before World War II and a teaching career intervened, although he still played a few games for the Bombay Europeans in Indian domestic cricket in 1946, with some games for Worcestershire. However, he joined Leicestershire as captain and secretary in 1950, and passed 1,000 runs in each of the eight full seasons he played for them. In 1953, Leicestershire finished third in the County Championship, the highest they had achieved at that stage since entering the competition in 1895, and Wisden praised Palmer's "inspiring captaincy".
On the back of this, he was appointed player-manager of the England tour side to the West Indies in 1953-54, which was captained by Len Hutton, and it was here that he won his only Test cap, making 22 and 0 and taking no wickets in the five overs he bowled. The series was played in bad temper, but Palmer's good-natured style helped the situation.
In 1955, Palmer was responsible for one of the most remarkable spells of bowling in cricketing history. Putting himself on to bowl against Surrey to allow his main two bowlers to change ends, he took 8 wickets for 7 runs, with his figures at one stage being 12-12-0-8. Another catch was dropped off his bowling too. However, Surrey still went on to win by seven wickets.
After retiring as a cricketer, Palmer was appointed chairman of Leicestershire, he became a member of the MCC committee, was President of the MCC in 1978/9, and chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board between 1983 and 1985.
Palmer died, at the age of 85, in March 2005.