Frederick Pearson

Who was Frederick Pearson?

Frederick Albert Pearson was an English cricketer: an all-rounder who played first-class cricket for Worcestershire between 1900 and 1926. He also appeared three times for Auckland in the 1910–11 season, and was twice selected to represent the Players against the Gentlemen, in 1911 at Scarborough and in 1924 at The Oval. He scored 18,495 of his runs for Worcestershire, placing him ninth on the county's all-time list, while his 815 wickets for the county are 12th on that ranking.

Born in Brixton, London, Pearson made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against London County in May 1900. He opened the batting, though making little impression as he was dismissed for 7 and 2, and claimed the single wicket of Lionel Wells. He did not have much more success in three further first-class games that season, but caught the eye with match figures of 10–98 in a minor game against a touring West Indian side.

1901 saw him make his maiden century, 108 against Leicestershire, and he finished the year with 945 first-class runs at 21.97, while with the ball he claimed 51 wickets at 31.37 including four occasions on which he took five or more wickets in an innings. Several lean years followed but from 1904 until first-class cricket was interrupted by the First World War Pearson was consistent with the bat, his season's aggregates being within 200 runs either side of a thousand in each English season. His bowling was at first less productive, though he did take 8–42 against Surrey in 1907.