Lionel Palairet

Lionel Charles Hamilton Palairet was an English amateur cricketer who played for Somerset and Oxford University. A graceful righthanded 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. An unwillingness to tour during the English winter limited Palairets Test appearances contemporaries believed he deserved more Test caps.

Lionel Palairet was born in GrangeoverSands, a popular seaside resort in Lancashire, onMay 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 firstclass appearances for the Marylebone Cricket Club in the late 1860s. Palairet was educated first at the Reverend S. Cornishs 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 allround sportsman he broke the schools running records in the twomile, mile and halfmile distances, and played cricket in the schools first eleven from 1886 to 1889, captaining the team in his final two years. In 1889, he was adjudged the schools 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

Source: Wikipedia