Norman Partridge

Who was Norman Partridge?

Norman Ernest Partridge, born at Great Barr, Birmingham, on 10 August 1900 and died at Aberystwyth on 10 March 1982, was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Warwickshire. But his wider claim to notability is that he was selected by Wisden in 1919, while a schoolboy at Malvern College, as one its five Cricketers of the Year, there being few outstanding first-class cricketers shortly after the First World War.

Partridge's record at Malvern as a right-hand batsman and, particularly, as a fast-medium in-swing bowler also led him, in 1919, to be chosen to play for the Gentlemen in the annual Gentlemen v Players match between the amateurs and the professionals at Lord's, then one of the highlights of the cricket season, but his school refused to allow him to take part.

Partridge was one of several schoolboys chosen in 1918 and 1919 as Wisden Cricketers of the Year. After Malvern, he was briefly with Worcestershire and in 1919 he played Marylebone Cricket Club being the dominant bowler with six wickets. He was at Cambridge for only one year, 1920, but won a Blue in the Varsity match.