Phil Mead
Phil Mead (in full Charles Phillip Mead) was a left-handed batsman for Hampshire and England between 1905 and 1936. His exceptionally straight bat and quick footwork (surprising for a man of heavy build as he was) made him one of the most difficult batsmen to dismiss throughout his career.
Mead holds many batting records, notably that of scoring the most runs in the County Championship and the fourth-highest total in all first-class matches. He also exceeded one thousand runs in every season of first-class cricket except his first - when he only played one match. He was also a fine fieldsman, holding 647 catches.
Born on March 9, 1887 in Battersea, Surrey, Phil Mead first trialled for Surrey, but because of that county's batting strength, qualified for Hampshire. After one match when not fully qualified in 1905, Mead immediately became a regular player, but faltered after a promising beginning.
However, from 1907 onwards Mead, at this stage an opening batsman, advanced very rapidly, with his average reaching 39 in the very wet summer of 1909. In 1911, he moved down the order to his familiar position of number four, and so successful was this move that he was the leading run-scorer in 1911 and 1913, and toured Australia in 1911/1912 and South Africa in 1913/1914. He was not nearly so successful as might have been expected in Australia, but in South Africa he hit a Test century and played particularly well throughout.
After World War I halted county cricket, Mead's list of achievements grew, as his always-remarkable watchfulness and superb footwork made him the complete master of bowlers such as Tich Freeman who were deadly against batsmen of poorer technique. In 1921, after missing the first three Tests against Australia, Mead hit 182 at The Oval - a record score against Australia in England until Len Hutton hit 364 on the same ground in 1938. He also hit his highest score - 280 not out - that year against Nottinghamshire (though Hampshire lost the match!)
Between 1922 and 1928, Mead was consistently one of the top batsmen in county cricket, but England's remarkable batting strength - with men like Herbert Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond, Jack Hobbs and Frank Woolley - meant Mead had few oppotunities at Test level. After scoring over 3000 runs in 1928, Mead toured Australia for the second time, but was dropped after one Test, presumably in the interest of team balance.
In 1929, affected by injury, Mead declined substantially, failing to reach 2000 runs for the first time since the war. However, despite no longer being in the front rank of English batsmen, Mead was still feared for his great technical skill and reached a thousand runs every year until, at the age of forty-nine in 1936, he was not re-engaged by Hampshire. In his last innings, Mead played a superbly skilful 52 against Hedley Verity on a badly wearing wicket, and he played for Suffolk in the Minor Counties Championship with considerable success in 1938 and 1939.
Soon after World War II, Mead became totally blind, but he retained a great interest in cricket right up to his death on March 26, 1958.