Percy Holmes

Who was Percy Holmes?

Percy Holmes was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire and England.

Holmes was born in Oakes, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. An opening batsman and a fine fielder, Holmes was a late developer who played only a handful of matches for Yorkshire before World War I, but came to immediate prominence after it with 1,886 runs and five centuries in 1919. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1920.

With Herbert Sutcliffe, Holmes formed for fifteen seasons the most prolific opening partnership in first-class cricket, and 69 times they put on 100 runs or more for the first wicket. Their partnership culminated, in 1932 against Essex at Leyton, in a then-world-record stand of 555, beating the previous Yorkshire record by Brown and Tunnicliffe in 1898 by just one run. Holmes contributed an unbeaten 224 to the partnership, which remained the world-record first-wicket partnership for 44 years. It is still the highest partnership for any wicket in English domestic cricket, and the fifth-highest ever for any wicket in the world.

According to Neville Cardus, Holmes was a jaunty, restless character who believed cricket should be fun.