{{short description|English cricketer}} {{for-multi|the Anglican priest|Charles Marriott (priest)|the rugby union player|Charles Marriott (rugby union)|the Oxford University cricketer and cricket administrator|Charles Marriott (cricketer, born 1848)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Use British English|date=June 2017}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Charles Marriott | image = CS Marriott.jpeg | country = England | fullname = Charles Stowell Marriott | birth_date = {{Birth date|1895|9|14|df=yes}} | birth_place = Heaton Moor, Stockport, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|10|13|1895|9|14|df=yes}} | death_place = Dollis Hill, London, England | nickname = Father | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right arm leg break | international = true | onetest = true | testdebutdate = 12 August | testdebutyear = 1933 | testdebutagainst = West Indies | testcap = 270 | club1 = Lancashire | year1 = {{nowrap|1919–1921}} | club2 = Cambridge University | year2 = {{nowrap|1920–1921}} | club3 = Kent | year3 = {{nowrap|1924–1937}} | columns = 2 | column1 = Test | matches1 = 1 | runs1 = 0 | bat avg1 = 0.00 | 100s/50s1 = 0/0 | top score1 = 0 | deliveries1 = 247 | wickets1 = 11 | bowl avg1 = 8.72 | fivefor1 = 2 | tenfor1 = 1 | best bowling1 = 6/59 | catches/stumpings1 = 1/– | column2 = First-class | matches2 = 159 | runs2 = 574 | bat avg2 = 4.41 | 100s/50s2 = 0/0 | top score2 = 21 | deliveries2 = 37,176 | wickets2 = 711 | bowl avg2 = 20.11 | fivefor2 = 48 | tenfor2 = 10 | best bowling2 = 8/98 | catches/stumpings2 = 47/– | date = 30 October | year = 2009 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/16903.html CricInfo }} '''Charles Stowell''' "'''Father'''" '''Marriott''' (14 September 1895 – 13 October 1966) was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Lancashire, Cambridge University and Kent. Marriott played between 1919 and 1938 and was considered one of the best leg-break and googly bowlers of the time. He went on to teach, having served during World War I in the British Army.
Marriott played in one Test match for the England cricket team in 1933 at the age of 37, taking 11 wickets.
==Early life== Marriott was born at Heaton Moor near Stockport in Lancashire; his birth was registered as "Charlie Stowell Marriott".<ref name=ci>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/16903.html Charles Marriott], ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2018.</ref> His father, Joshua Marriott, was a solicitor. He was educated in Ireland, first at Monkston Park School in Dublin from 1904 to 1909 and then at The Royal School, Armagh between 1909 and 1912 before attending St Columba's College, Dublin from 1912 to 1913. He played cricket in the school XI at both Royal School and St Columba's and was a member of the St Columba's Officer Training Corps (OTC).<ref name=lewis247>Lewis P (2014) ''For Kent and Country'', pp.247–253. Brighton: Reveille Press. {{isbn|978-1-908336-63-7}}.</ref>
After leaving school Marriott enrolled at Trinity College Dublin where he was also a member of the OTC. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.<ref name=lewis247 />
==Military service== Marriott enrolled in the Lancashire Fusiliers in September 1915 and was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant in the 21st Reserve Battalion the following month. In March 1916 he was posted to France with the 16th Battalion and he was on the front line at Thiepval when the Battle of the Somme began and saw action during the first two days of the battle.<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=tory11nov18>{{cite news |author=Jim White|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2018/11/11/story-charles-marriott-englands-one-test-wonder-survived-battle/|title=Moving story of England's one-Test wonder who survived horrors of Battle of the Somme |newspaper=The Sunday Telegraph|date=11 November 2018 |at=sports section, page 1}}</ref> He spent time on the front line at Ovillers and, later in the year, to the north of Arras and was promoted, first to Lieutenant and then to acting Captain, commanding a company.<ref name=lewis247 />
He was injured falling on frozen duckboards during early 1917 and spent some time convalescing in England before returning to the war, seeing action at Savy Wood, Saint-Quentin, Nieuwpoort and around Ypres during the summer. He was gassed near Nieuwpoort in July 1917 and evacuated home, spending time recovering in Dublin. Doctors determined that he was suffering from photophobia and had many of the classic signs of shell shock and that he was unfit for front line service. He spent early 1918 with the 3rd Battalion at Withernsea in Yorkshire and transferred to the Royal Air Force in July, joining the Cadet Wing at Hastings with the rank of Lieutenant for the remainder of the war. He was demobilised in April 1919.<ref name=lewis247 />
==Cricket career== Having played some cricket during the war, including for a team organised by FS Jackson at Lord's in 1918,<ref name=lewis247 /> Marriott made his first-class cricket debut for the Gentlemen of England against Oxford University in May 1919.<ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/621/621.html Father Marriott], CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref> He went on to make his Lancashire debut later the same month. The match, against Essex at Leyton, is reported to be the first county cricket match Marriott had ever seen. He played 12 matches for Lancashire from 1919 to 1921.<ref name=lewis247 />
Marriott enrolled at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1919.<ref name=peterhouse>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DYZCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |title=Admissions to Peterhouse |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1939 |page=38|isbn=9781107553897 }}</ref> He played for Cambridge University Cricket Club, making 17 first-class appearances for the team in his two years at Cambridge.{{efn|Marriott took a shortened degree. This was standard practice at Cambridge immediately after World War I, with men who had served during the war being allowed to graduate more quickly. Marriott was credited with three terms worth of study for his war service.<ref name=peterhouse />}} He won blues in 1920 and 1921, meeting with "remarkable success", taking seven wickets in both of his University Matches.<ref name=wis67>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/155463.html Charles "Father" Marriott], Obituary, ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1967. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref> It was at Cambridge that Marriott was nicknamed "Father" on account of his relatively advanced age of 25.<ref name=lewis247 />
After Cambridge, Marriott went on to take up a post as a teacher of modern languages at Dulwich College in 1921. He took responsibility for cricket at the school between 1921 and 1926.<ref name=lewis247 /> The post allowed him to play for Kent County Cricket Club in the school holidays, although he initially declined Lord Harris' invitation to do so.<ref name=lewis247 /> He eventually accepted the opportunity and played for the Kent team between 1924 and 1937, making 101 first-class appearances for the county, taking 429 wickets.<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=ca />
In his first season for Kent Marriott topped the county's bowling averages and was awarded his county cap. He took 10 wickets against Hampshire and 11 against Lancashire<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=wis67 /> and had a "remarkable impact" on the team.<ref name=lewis247 /> He toured South Africa over the English winter of 1924/25 with SB Joel's XI,{{efn|The tour was not recognised as one by an England team with an official tour of Australia organised by MCC taking place at the same time.}} playing in eight of the 14 first-class matches during the tour<ref name=ca /><ref name=wis67 /> and played regularly for Kent during August in each season until 1935, other than in 1930 when he played no first-class cricket.<ref name=ca /> His last match for Kent came in 1937 against Sussex at Maidstone, and his final first-class match was the following year for Free Foresters against Oxford University.<ref name=ca />
===International cricket=== {{#section:Bowling average|bestTest}} Marriott was selected in the squad for the 4th Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1921, but didn't make the final eleven. Marriott's only Test match was in the third Test against the touring West Indies at The Oval in 1933. He was aged 37 when he was called in to the England team as a replacement for the injured Hedley Verity.<ref name=tory11nov18 /> He took 11 wickets during the match, 5/37 in the West Indies first innings, and 6/59{{efn|The notation 6/59 means that the bowler took six wickets at the cost of 59 runs scored by the opposing team from his bowling.}} in the second, making him the fourth cricketer to take two five wicket hauls on Test debut.<ref name="OTW">{{cite web|url=https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/666983 |title=The Greatest: One Test Wonders |work=International Cricket Council |access-date=19 April 2018}}</ref> ''Wisden'' reported that with "clever flighting of the ball, perfect length and spin" he produced "one of the best performances accomplished by a bowler when playing for England for the first time"<ref name=wis34t3>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151777.html Third Test match], England v West Indies 1933, ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1934. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref> and Marriott remains the bowler with the lowest bowling average to have taken more than 10 wickets in Test matches. He "bewildered" the West Indian batsmen<ref name=wis67 /> as he "disguised his spin very well and never made the ball break too much".<ref name=wis34t3 />
The following winter Marriott toured India with an official England team led by Douglas Jardine. He did not play in any of the three Test matches on the tour and ''Wisden'' reported that he "was seldom as good as in England",<ref name=wis35>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151796.html M. C. C. team in India, 1933-34], ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1935. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref> although he took a hat-trick against Madras, the only time he completed the hat-trick during his career.<ref name=wis67 /> He played nine times for MCC during the tour, taking 32 wickets, and made a further appearance for the club against the touring Australians in May 1934.<ref name=ca /><ref name=ci8nov11>Lynch S (2011) [http://en.espn.co.uk/cricket/sport/story/120369.html The one and only], ESPNcricinfo, 8 November 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref>
==Playing style and legacy== Marriott was one of the best leg break bowlers of the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name=wis67 /><ref name=times15oct66>Mr. C. S. Marriott, ''The Times'', 15 October 1966, p.10.</ref> He bowled with a high bowling action, swinging his arm behind his back before he delivered the ball in a style which ''Wisden'' compared to Kent's great spin bowler Colin Blythe.<ref name=wis67 /> He bowled an "immaculate length" at slow or medium pace and was "highly disciplined" in his approach to bowling, having developed his skills through what ''The Times'' called "endless practice".<ref name=times15oct66 /> He used "cunning flighting" and "the ability to turn the ball sharply" to be an effective bowler "even on good pitches" and could be "unplayable" on helpful pitches.<ref name=wis67 /> He bowled a "fierce" top-spinner<ref name=times15oct66 /> and although he was able to bowl an effective googly, he used it relatively rarely, having injured himself at school whilst bowling the delivery.<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=haigh>Haigh G (2002) ''Mystery Spinner: The life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer''. London: Aurum Press. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=iDPBAgAAQBAJ&dq=charles+marriott+cricket&pg=PT109 Available online]. Retrieved 17 December 2018.)</ref> If he did bowl the delivery it was generally during the first few overs of a spell to act as a deterrent to batsmen.<ref name=haigh />
Marriott wrote a book, ''The Complete Leg-Break Bowler'', which was posthumously published in 1968 with an introduction by Ian Peebles and a postscript by Richie Benaud.<ref name=lewis247 /> John Arlott praised its "feeling for subject, polished style, and a salting of humour" and declared that it was "one of the classics of cricket writing".<ref>John Arlott, "Cricket Books, 1968", ''Wisden'' 1969, p. 1028.</ref>
The 11 wickets Marriott took in his only Test match remain the best bowling figures for any player who has only played a single Test. He is the only player to have taken two five wicket hauls in their only Test and his Test bowling average of 8.72 runs per wicket is the lowest of any Test cricketer to have taken 10 or more wickets.<ref name=cc14sep14>Mukherjee A (2014) [https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/charles-father-marriott-the-finest-one-test-wonder-186883 Charles "Father" Marriott: The finest "One-Test Wonder?"], Cricket Country, 14 September 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref>
Marriott took a total of 711 wickets during his first-class career, 429 of them taken for Kent. He took 10 wickets in a match 10 times, eight for Kent, and five wickets in an innings 48 times.<ref name=tory11nov18 /><ref name=18annual167>Bowling Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2018'', pp.167–175. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club.</ref> He was a less than capable fielder and batsman and scored fewer runs, 574, than he took wickets.<ref name=wis67 /><ref name=ci11dec07>Miller A, Williamson M (2007) [http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/239768.html Eleven quirky debuts], ESPNcricinfo, 7 December 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref> As a coach at Dulwich College he coached a number of future first-class players,<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=times15oct66 /> including future Wisden Cricketers of the Year Trevor Bailey and Hugh Bartlett.<ref name=wis50>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/154621.html Trevor Bailey], Cricketer of the Year – 1950, ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1950. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref><ref name=wis39>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/154646.html Hugh Bartlett], Cricketer of the Year – 1939, ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1939. Retrieved 17 December 2018.</ref>
==Personal and later life== Marriott married Phyllis Taylor at Kensington in 1924 and taught at Dulwich College throughout his career. He retired from teaching in 1953, three years early due to ill health. As a teacher he was "well known" for a passion for literature, playing roles in school plays and he played the trombone in the school orchestra.<ref name=lewis247 /> After his retirement he gave readings from literature at schools and literary societies.<ref name=times21oct66>Mr. C. S. Marriott, ''The Times'', 21 October 1966, p.14.</ref>
During World War II Marriott was an anti-aircraft gunner in the Home Guard and played cricket in war-time matches, including at Lord's in 1944 when he was 47.<ref name=lewis247 /><ref name=wis67 /> He died in a nursing home at Dollis Hill in Middlesex in 1966 aged 71.<ref name=ci />
==See also== *One-Test wonder *List of England cricketers who have taken five-wicket hauls on Test debut
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=16903}} *[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1930S/1933/WI_IN_ENG/WI_ENG_T3_12-15AUG1933.html Scorecard of Charles Marriott's only Test match]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, Charles}} Category:1895 births Category:1966 deaths Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:England Test cricketers Category:English cricketers Category:Kent cricketers Category:Lancashire cricketers Category:Free Foresters cricketers Category:British Home Guard soldiers Category:Lancashire Fusiliers officers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:People from Heaton Moor Category:Cricketers from Greater Manchester Category:Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Category:Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Category:Gentlemen cricketers Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:Gentlemen of England cricketers Category:People educated at St Columba's College, Dublin Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:Schoolteachers from Greater Manchester Category:S. B. Joel's XI cricketers Category:English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Category:20th-century English sportsmen