Patsy Hendren made his Middlesex debut in 1907 and through the 1910s grew into one of the most popular cricketers ever to play at Lord's — short, jovial, brilliantly quick in the deep, and a batsman who would eventually score 170 first-class centuries.
Hendren came from a London Irish family and learned his cricket on Turnham Green. He was a Catholic in an overwhelmingly Anglican professional milieu.
His Middlesex career started in 1907 but was slow to take off; by 1911 he had broken through.
Elias Hendren, always known as Patsy, was a London-born Irishman who played his first Middlesex match aged 18 in 1907. By 1911 he was scoring 1,000 first-class runs in a season; by 1914 he had become a fixture in the Middlesex middle order. He served in the war, returned in 1919 and was selected for England the following year. His Test career — 51 matches, 7 centuries, average 47.63 — would have begun earlier without the war; his county career, eventually 170 first-class centuries (third on the all-time list behind Hobbs and Hammond), was already firmly under way by 1914. His fielding at deep mid-off and in the deep was reputedly the best of his generation. He was the crowd's favourite at Lord's for almost three decades.
1907: Middlesex debut at 18
1911: First 1,000-run season
1914: Established in Middlesex middle order
1915-18: War service
1919: Returns to first-class cricket
1907
Middlesex debut
1911
First 1,000-run season
1914
Last pre-war season
1915-18
War service
“The merriest of men and the most reliable of batsmen.”
Hendren played Tests until 1935 and county cricket until 1937. He scored 170 first-class centuries.
The slow emergence of one of cricket's greatest professionals — and one of its most beloved.
Hendren's pre-war emergence is the foundation of one of the longest careers in cricket. With Hobbs and Woolley he is one of the three batsmen whose careers spanned both eras.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.