Lionel Charles Hamilton Palairet (27 May 1870 – 27 March 1933) was an English amateur cricketer who played for Somerset and Oxford University. A graceful right-handed batsman, he was selected to play Test cricket for England twice in 1902. Contemporaries judged Palairet to have one of the most attractive batting styles of the period. His obituary in The Times described him as "the most beautiful batsman of all time".The Times, Wednesday, 29 March 1933; g. 6; Issue 46405; col D. An unwillingness to tour during the English winter limited Palairet's Test appearances; contemporaries believed he deserved more Test caps.
Palairet was educated at Repton School. He played in the school cricket team for four years, as captain in the latter two, before going to Oriel College, Oxford. He achieved his cricketing Blue in each of his four years at Oxford, and captained the team in 1892 and 1893. For Somerset, he frequently opened the batting with Herbie Hewett. In 1892, they shared a partnership of 346 for the first wicket, an opening stand that set a record for the County Championship and remains Somerset's highest first-wicket partnership. In that season, Palairet was named as one of the "Five Batsmen of the Year" by Wisden.
Over the following decade, he was one of the leading amateur batsmen in England. He passed 1,000 first-class runs in a season on seven occasions, and struck two double centuries. His highest score, 292 runs against Hampshire in 1895, remained a record for a Somerset batsman until 1948. His only Test matches were the fourth and fifth Tests against Australia in 1902: Australia won the fourth Test by three runs, and England won the fifth Test by one wicket. After 1904, he appeared infrequently for Somerset, though he played a full season in 1907 when he was chosen to captain the county. He retired from first-class cricket in 1909, having scored over 15,000 runs.
Early life Lionel Palairet was born in Grange-over-Sands, a popular seaside resort in Lancashire, on 27 May 1870. He was the oldest of five children born to Henry Hamilton Palairet and Elizabeth Anne Bigg. His father, of Huguenot ancestry, was five times archery champion of England, and a keen cricketer who made two first-class appearances for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in the late 1860s. Palairet was educated first at the Reverend S. Cornish's School in Clevedon, Somerset, where he once took seven wickets in seven successive deliveries, and then at Repton School. At Repton he developed a reputation as an all-round sportsman: he broke the school's running records in the two-mile, mile and half-mile distances, and played cricket in the school's first eleven from 1886 to 1889, captaining the team in his final two years. In 1889, he was adjudged the school's second best sportsman, behind only C. B. Fry. During his final year at Repton, he had a batting average of over 29, and took 56 wickets at an average of under 13.
Some of Palairet's early success can be attributed to his father, who paid the professionals Frederick Martin and William Attewell, both later Wisden Cricketers of the Year, to bowl at his two sons during the Easter holidays, to help them prepare for the upcoming cricket season. During the later part of the 1889 season, Palairet made his first appearances for Somerset County Cricket Club. At the time, Somerset were a second-class county, and their fixture list that summer was against a variety of first- and second-class opposition. Although a Lancastrian by birth, Palairet's family home was at Cattistock in Dorset, and it was in the south west that he chose to play his cricket. On completion of his studies at Repton, he attended Oriel College, Oxford.
Cricket career University and county cricketer Palairet was selected for the university cricket team during his first year at Oxford, and made his first-class debut against the touring Australians in May 1890. Palairet scored six and nought and took one wicket in the match which Australia won by an innings. In his next match, Palairet improved, top-scoring for Oxford in their first innings against the Gentlemen with his first half-century in first-class cricket, 54 runs batting at number eight. He only passed 50 runs in one other innings for Oxford that summer, a score of 72 against the MCC, and in all matches for the university that season scored 285 runs at an average of 19.00. Batting averages in 1890 were lower than usual due to the poor weather, and Palairet's average placed him fourth among Oxford's team; his 285-run total was the team's second highest aggregate. Palairet won his Blue—the awarding of the Oxford "colours" to sportsmen—by appearing in the 1890 University match against Cambridge, a game in which he had little success.Bolton (1962), pp. 133–135. Somerset played thirteen matches in the season, won twelve of them and tied the other. Palairet played in ten of these games, and on his first appearance scored a century against Leicestershire. Somerset's achievements led to their admission to first-class cricket for 1891.
Oxford's batting was described by the Oxford cricket historian Geoffrey Bolton as "unreliable" during 1891, Palairet's second year at the university. Palairet's batting average of 15.78 placed him fifth amongst his peers, and he once again struggled in the university match, scoring two and eleven.Bolton (1962), pp. 136–139. Although he generally batted as part of the middle order for Oxford, he invariably opened the innings for Somerset alongside his captain, Herbie Hewett. In this role he thrived for Somerset; his average for the county in ten matches was 31.11, placing him among the top ten batsmen in the County Championship. He scored his debut century in first-class cricket that year, with 100 runs against Gloucestershire. Palairet had agreed to tour North America with Lord Hawke's party, but he demurred late, and was replaced by Somerset teammate Sammy Woods.
In 1892 Palairet was elected captain of the Oxford team, and according to Wisden, "had a most brilliant season." Palairet used himself heavily as a bowler for the university; only George Berkeley bowled more deliveries.Bolton (1962), pp. 140–144. He took five wickets in an innings for the first of two occasions during his career in the first innings of Oxford's match against the Gentlemen, and followed it up with four wickets in each innings against Lancashire, a match in which he also scored a half-century. He recorded the best bowling figures of his first-class career in the return match against Lancashire, taking six wickets for 84 runs at Old Trafford, and in the following game against Sussex, Bolton says, "Palairet played two beautiful innings and bowled to some effect". Facing Cambridge in the university match, he was out without scoring in the first innings, but centuries from Malcolm Jardine and Vernon Hill took Oxford to 365. Cambridge were dismissed for 160, and were forced to follow on, whereupon they reached 388, leaving Oxford requiring 184 runs to win. Palairet, who had injured himself while fielding, opted not to open the batting, promoting Frank Phillips in his place. Oxford started poorly, falling to 17 for two, but coming in at number five, Palairet batted for an hour and a half to score 71 runs and help his team to victory. He topped the batting averages for Oxford in 1892, scoring 509 runs at 36.35, and his 28 wickets came at 22.28.
Palairet's university performances were good enough to earn him selection for the Gentlemen against the Players in the prestigious matches at Lord's and The Oval. Returning to Somerset, he struck a century against Gloucestershire in early July, In late August, playing Yorkshire, Palairet scored 132 out of a partnership of 346 with Hewett, establishing a record for the first wicket in first-class cricket, surpassing W. G. Grace and Bransby Cooper's 1869 total of 283.Roebuck (1991), p. 62. Although their record has since been beaten in first-class cricket, it remains Somerset's record partnership for the first wicket. Their partnership was described as "Pure grace at one end, sheer force at the other", in H.S. Altham and E. W. Swanton's A History of Cricket.Altham, Swanton (1938), p. 205. At the time, The Daily Telegraph reported that the pair remained together for three and a half hours, during which Palairet scored one six and nineteen fours. At the end of the season, he was selected in two representative teams: appearing for the West against the East, and once again for the Gentlemen against the Players, on this occasion at Hastings. In all first-class matches that year, he scored 1,343 runs, the third most of any cricketer. He was named as one of the Five Batsmen of the Year by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1893, which noted that "there can be little doubt that even greater distinction awaits him in the cricket world."
In contrast to the previous year, 1893 was an unsuccessful one for Oxford. The university team failed to win a single match, and despite favourable batting conditions, none of the batsmen scored a century. Palairet was second in the batting averages, scoring 276 runs at 21.23. Bolton questioned the team selections that year under Palairet's captaincy, particularly for the university match, in which he believed a stronger team could have been chosen.Bolton (1962), pp. 144–147. Cambridge had a powerful team, containing eight of their players from the previous year, and adding Arthur Jones and K. S. Ranjitsinhji. Oxford lost the match by 266 runs, with only Palairet and Fry scoring more than 12 runs for the team.Chesterton, Doggart (1989), p. 114.
In his four years at Oxford, Palairet appeared for the university 31 times in first-class cricket and accrued 1,291 runs at an average of 23.05. He scored nine half-centuries, with a top-score of 75 not out. He claimed 52 wickets at 25.03—significantly lower than his career average—and took the only five-wicket hauls of his career. While at Oxford, he also gained a Blue in athletics, running in the three-mile race against Cambridge in 1892. The same year, he played association football for Corinthians, and there were also appearances for Combined Universities and London. An injury prevented Palairet from playing against Cambridge, and thus earning his Blue in football.
Leading amateur batsman Over the following seasons, Palairet moved to "the front rank of amateur batsmen," according to W. G. Grace. He played for Arthur Shrewsbury's England XI against Australia in 1893, and scored 71 runs as the English team won by an innings and 153 runs. He scored five half-centuries for Somerset that summer, and his batting average of 28.94 in the County Championship was bettered only by Hewett among his teammates. The next year, Palairet made a big score against his former university. Facing a team that included his brother, Richard Palairet, and was captained by Fry, he made 181 runs in Somerset's second innings, the highest first-class score of his career to that point. He also scored a century against Nottinghamshire, making 119 runs before being out leg before wicket to his old trainer Attewell. He fell just short of 1,000 first-class runs in 1894; though two half-centuries scored against the touring South Africans in matches not considered first-class would have taken him over the milestone.