Fuller Pilch: A Straightforward Man
About this ebook
Born in Norfolk, he developed his batting skills in East Anglia, but was eventually attracted to Kent where, at West Malling and in Canterbury, he was the cornerstone of that county’s first great elevens. County cricket was then limited in its scale and so, to make a living he travelled widely, taking part ‒ like a modern practitioner ‒ in matches in all kinds of formats.
Naturally he played regularly for and against the gentlemen at Lord’s. But he also appeared in single-wicket games, village cricket, in the All-England Eleven against eighteens and twenty-twos under the gangmaster William Clarke, even in ‘three-a-sides’.
Brian Rendell traces out the life of a quiet, dignified man, unaffected by and almost innocent of his celebrity, from his country beginnings to his poverty after the financial crisis of 1866.
About the author
As a schoolboy, Brian Rendell enjoyed his first Test match in 1946 sitting behind the boundary ropes in front of the Grand Stand at Lord‘s; watched Middlesex during the “golden summer” of 1947; marvelled at Bradman’s ‘Invincibles’ in 1948; and saw George Mann leading England against New Zealand at Lord’s in 1949. He has continued to be a lover of cricket at all levels for nearly 70 years.
Following his retirement, after thirty years in newspaper and magazine publishing plus ten years in education, he set out to further his research into cricket history. He is the author of Gubby Allen: Bad Boy of Bodyline (Cricket Lore, 2004) and Gubby Under Pressure (ACS, 2007). He followed these with contributions to this Lives in Cricket series, Walter Robins: Achievements, Affections and Affronts (2013) and Frank and George Mann: Brewing, Batting and Captaincy (2015).
