{{short description|English cricketer}} {{for|the British Olympic gymnast|Percy May (gymnast)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}} {{Use British English|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Percy May | image = File:Percy May.jpg | caption = | country = England | fullname = Percy Robert May | nickname = Phil<ref>{{cite journal|title=Sizing Them Up: The M.C.C. Team for New Zealand|journal=Auckland Star |date=28 November 1906|page= 3|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19061128.2.10}}</ref><ref name="SSP">S. S. Perera, ''The Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket (1832–1996)'', Janashakthi Insurance, Colombo, 1999, pp. 103-104, 438.</ref> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|3|13|df=yes}} | birth_place = Chertsey, Surrey, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1965|12|6|1884|3|13}} | death_place = Eastleigh, Hampshire, England | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm fast | family = | club1 = London County | year1 = 1902 to 1904 | club2 = Surrey | year2 = 1902 to 1909 | club3 = Cambridge University | year3 = 1903 to 1906 | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 72 | runs1 = 1037 | bat avg1 = 14.20 | 100s/50s1 = 0/1 | top score1 = 51 not out | deliveries1 = 10,858 | wickets1 = 247 | bowl avg1 = 24.67 | fivefor1 = 14 | tenfor1 = 3 | best bowling1 = 8/49 | catches/stumpings1= 36/0 | date = 18 October | year = 2014 | source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/31/31340/31340.html Cricket Archive }} '''Percy Robert''' "'''Phil'''" '''May''' (13 March 1884 – 6 December 1965) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1902 to 1910, and a final match in 1926.
==Life and career== May was born to Henry and Emma May in Chertsey in Surrey, where Henry worked as a butler.<ref>{{cite web |title=Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms: Chertsey, St Peter|url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/4772/images/40761_311925-00312|website=Ancestry.com.au |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref> A fast bowler, Percy played for London County in 1902 at the age of 18, and occasionally for Surrey. After being privately educated,<ref>''Wisden'' 1958, p. 684.</ref> May went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge in the autumn of 1902.<ref name="TC">{{cite journal |last1=Perera |first1=S. S. |title=P. R. May |journal=The Cricketer |date=1966 |volume=47 |issue=3 |page=24 }}</ref>
He played cricket for the university side from 1903 to 1906, taking part in victories over Oxford University in 1905 and 1906. In 1906 he bowled unchanged throughout both innings to take 7 for 41 and 5 for 25 in Cambridge's 305-run victory over Yorkshire at Fenner's.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/6/6956.html Cambridge University v Yorkshire 1906]</ref> He opened the bowling for the Gentlemen against the Players later that year, taking seven wickets, more than any other bowler.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/7/7080.html Gentlemen v Players 1906]</ref> He finished the season with 75 wickets at an average of 22.76, his most successful season.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/31/31340/f_Bowling_by_Season.html Percy May bowling by season]</ref>
He also won a Blue at Cambridge for Association football, and toured the US with the Corinthians in 1906.<ref name="TC"/>
May toured New Zealand with MCC in 1906-07, taking 45 wickets in nine first-class matches at 15.97 and forming a powerful pace attack with Johnny Douglas, who took 50 wickets at 13.26.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Marylebone_Cricket_Club_in_New_Zealand_1906-07/f_Marylebone_Cricket_Club_Bowling.html MCC in New Zealand 1906-07 bowling averages]</ref> He took 5 for 53 and 5 for 37 in the first victory over Otago (by 232 runs) and 4 for 49 and 4 for 58 in the second victory (by an innings and 95 runs), and played in both matches against New Zealand, taking eight wickets.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Marylebone_Cricket_Club_in_New_Zealand_1906-07.html MCC in New Zealand 1906-07]</ref> He wrote an account of the tour based on his diary, titled ''With the MCC in New Zealand'' (1907), which a New Zealand reviewer found "a very readable story ... which I was loth to put down ... the 'behind-the-scenes' life of an English amateur cricketer on tour ... makes for good and entertaining reading".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Notes by Long Slip|journal=Otago Witness |date=19 February 1908|issue=2814|page= 60|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19080219.2.235.1|accessdate=4 February 2018}}</ref> Among the New Zealanders there was some question about the legitimacy of his bowling action; Dick Brittenden later described him as "a fast bowler with a peculiar leap just before delivery, and whose action was suspect".<ref>R.T. Brittenden, ''Great Days in New Zealand Cricket'', A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1958, p. 28.</ref>
He played a few matches in 1907, with one outstanding performance for Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South at the Hastings Festival, when he took 8 for 49 and 3 for 69 in a 233-run victory.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/7/7458.html Gentlemen of the South v Players of the South 1907]</ref> After that he took a job as a teacher in England and played little first-class cricket.<ref name="TC"/>
May spent the years from 1910 to 1950 in Ceylon, managing the 2500-acre Dalkeith rubber plantation at Latpandura in the Kalutara District.<ref name="SSP"/> He was a regular club cricketer for most of his time in Ceylon, and played in the annual match for Europeans against Ceylonese in 1911, 1912 and 1914.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/31/31340/Miscellaneous_Matches.html Miscellaneous matches played by Percy May]</ref> After suffering a shoulder injury not long after he arrived in Ceylon he was forced to abandon fast bowling and instead became a skilful underarm spin bowler and batsman.<ref name="SSP"/><ref>S. P. Foenander, "Cricket in Ceylon", ''The Cricketer'' Annual 1924, p. 55.</ref> He served briefly as President of the Ceylon Cricket Association.<ref name="TC"/>
May married Ursula Loughnan in 1913.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Playground |journal=Southland Times |date=29 March 1913 |page=10 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19130329.2.68}}</ref> After they returned from Ceylon they retired to Alverstoke in Hampshire. He died in hospital at Eastleigh in December 1965.<ref>{{cite web |title=England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1966 |url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/discoveryui-content/view/15099573:1904 |website=Ancestry.com.au |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/31/31340/31340.html Percy May] at CricketArchive * [http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/17453.html Percy May] at Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Percy}} Category:1884 births Category:1965 deaths Category:English cricketers Category:London County cricketers Category:Surrey cricketers Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:Gentlemen cricketers Category:Gentlemen of England cricketers Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:Gentlemen of the South cricketers Category:Free Foresters cricketers Category:Cricketers from Chertsey Category:20th-century English sportsmen