Full Name

Herbert Alan Peach

Born

October 06, 1890, Maidstone, Kent

Died

October 08, 1961, North End, Newbury, Hampshire, (aged 71y 2d)

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Medium

TEAMS

Herbert Allan Peach, the former Surrey allrounder, died at Newbury on October 8 at the age of 71. Born at Maidstone on October 6, 1890, he served for a short time on the Kent staff before joining the Oval staff in 1912. He played for Surrey 11 in the two seasons preceding the First World War. He made his first-class debut in 1919, and soon proved himself a joyous cricketer, his many hard-hitting innings giving much pleasure at the Oval throughout the 1920s. He was a right-hander who hit with tremendous power, and on numerous occasions was the leading partner in lightning bursts of scoring, often in conjunction with P. G. H. Fender. In 1924 he hit balls from both Bates of Glamorgan and Newman of Hampshire clean out of the Oval, and at Swansea scored 50 of his 56 in boundaries. At the Oval in 1928 he scored 96 out of 129 in less than an hour against Hampshire, but his most famous innings - and the highest of his career - was at Northampton in 1920 when, at more than a run a minute, he scored 200 not out (including twenty-six 4s) out of 492, adding 288 for the fifth wicket in 2'1 hours with A. Ducat, and 171 not out for the sixth with Fender in only 42 minutes. He was a naturally aggressive batsman, not cultured, but often devastatingly effective, and on one occasion at the Oval struck all six balls of an over to the boundary. He was a medium-pace bowler who did a large amount of work for Surrey, mostly on perfect Oval wickets, but always with an honest cheerfulness. When he took 8 for 60 against Sussex at the Oval in 1924, he took 4 wickets in 4 balls, the only time the feat has been performed in a Championship match at the Oval: off his next delivery a catch was dropped which prevented him from achieving a unique feat. He took 96 wickets in 1928, but never succeeded in reaching 100 in a season; and he twice - in 1920 and 1925 - scored more than 900 runs. He played six times for the Players against the Gentlemen between 1923 and 1928, and early in 1929 visited Jamaica with Sir (then Mr.) Julien Cahn's team. He took his benefit against Yorkshire later that year. His career for Surrey continued until 1931, at the end of which season both he and Ducat were not re-engaged. In his 428 innings in first-class cricket he scored 8,940 runs at an average of 23.65, including four centuries and took 795 wickets at 26.58 each. He was also an excellent fielder. He played for Berkshire in 1933 and 1934, and was county coach at the Oval in the five years up to 1939, being responsible for discovering the Bedser twins. He was always an enthusiastic and popular figure and a fine example of a professional cricketer.
The Cricketer

Harry Peach Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100sCtSt
FC338428518940200*23.7141820

Bowling

FormatMatRunsWktsBBIAve5w10w
FC338211367958/6026.58301

Debut/Last Matches of Harry Peach

FC Matches

Span
1919 - 1931

Recent Matches of Harry Peach

MatchBatBowlDateGroundFormat
Surrey vs Glamorgan03/117 & 0/1930-Apr-1930The OvalFC
Surrey vs Gloucs5 & 13/68 & 1/7115-Aug-1928CheltenhamFC
Surrey vs Australians--4/8128-Jul-1926The OvalFC
Surrey vs Australians392/83 & 0/1308-May-1926The OvalFC
Surrey vs West Indians0 & 171/48 & 0/1801-Aug-1923The OvalFC

Photos of Harry Peach

Clarrie Grimmett bowling against Surrey at The Oval in 1926