C. B. Fry

Fry played for Surrey in 1891 (but not in any first-class fixtures),[33] Oxford University 1892–1895 (winning Blues in all four years and captaining the university in 1894, meaning that he was simultaneously not only captain of both the university cricket and football teams but president of the varsity athletics club as well)[34][35] Sussex 1894–1908 (captain 1904–1908), and Hampshire, 1909–1921. First selected by England for the tour of South Africa in 1895–96, he captained England in his final six Test matches in 1912, winning four and drawing two. He twice scored Test centuries: 144 v Australia in 1905 hitting 23 fours in just over 3+1⁄2 hours, batting at number four,[36][37] and 129 opening the batting against South Africa in 1907.[38][39]

As a highly effective right-handed batsman who batted at, or near the top of the order, Fry scored 30,886 first-class runs at an average of 50.22, a particularly high figure for an era when scores were generally lower than today. At the end of his cricketing career in 1921–22, he had the second highest average of any retired player with over 10,000 runs: only his Sussex and England colleague Ranjitsinhji had retired with a better career average. He headed the batting averages (qualification minimum 20 innings) for six English seasons (in 1901, 1903, 1905, 1907, 1911 and 1912). Against Yorkshire, the strongest county bowling attack of Fry's time, he averaged a remarkable 63.60 over the course of his career, including back to back scores of 177[40] and 229[41] against them in 1904. GL Jessop said that calmness was at the heart of his batting and that he was a superb judge of a run as well as being fast between the wickets.[42]

England v. Australia at Trent Bridge, 1899. Back row: Dick Barlow (umpire), Tom Hayward, George Hirst, Billy Gunn, J T Hearne (12th man), Bill Storer (wkt kpr), Bill Brockwell, V A Titchmarsh (umpire). Middle row: C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji, W G Grace (captain), Stanley Jackson. Front row: Wilfred Rhodes, Johnny Tyldesley.

In his early career Fry was an enthusiastic and successful right-arm fast-medium bowler. He returned his career best figures of 6–78 in the 1895 Varsity match,[43] and he twice took ten wickets in a match: 5–75 and 5–102 for the Gentlemen of England against I Zingari in 1895,[44] and 5–81 and 5–66 for Sussex against Nottinghamshire in 1896 (a match in which he also scored 89 and 65).[45] The late 1890s saw a re-emergence of the throwing controversy in cricket. Several professional bowlers including Arthur Mold and Ernie Jones were no-balled; Mold was forced to retire. Fry's bowling action was criticised by opponents and teammates, and it was only a matter of time before he too was no-balled by umpire Jim Phillips.[46]

Fry scored 94 first-class centuries, including an unprecedented six consecutive centuries in 1901. No one else has scored more consecutive hundreds. On 12 September 1901, playing for the Rest of England against Yorkshire at Lord's, he scored 105, which was his sixth consecutive first-class century.[47][48] He made his highest first-class score of 258 not out in 1911,[49] a season which led to his recall to the England Test team as captain in 1912. In 1921 Fry was once again considered for the Test side. The Selection Committee asked him to play in the First Test match at Nottingham under the captaincy of Johnny Douglas, with a view to taking over the captaincy for the remainder of the series if, as they anticipated, things went wrong. Fry declined on the basis that there was no sense in recalling a forty-nine-year-old merely as a player, but stated that he would consider returning as captain. As England were badly beaten at Nottingham the Selection Committee again pressed Fry to return for the Second Test but once again he declined, due to poor form. Following another heavy defeat in the Second Test the Selection Committee made a further attempt to persuade Fry to return for the Third Test as captain, a job he was now keen to accept. He injured a finger taking a catch during Hampshire's match with the Australians. In the short term, the injury did not appear too serious: he scored a half-century in Hampshire's first innings and, when they followed on in reply to the Australians' massive total he top scored with 37. Furthermore, in his next match against Nottinghamshire he scored 61 in the first innings (but registered a duck in the second). It appears however that the injury was affecting his fielding more than his batting and, for last time, C.B. felt obliged to stand down from the side for the next Test.[50] Fry later commentated on cricket matches, being called "one of the most eloquent cricket commentators of all time."[51]

Fry caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1894

For both Sussex and England, he was closely associated with the outstanding cricketer Prince Ranjitsinhji, the future Jam Sahib of Nawanagar.[52] Their contrasting batting styles complemented one another (Fry being an orthodox, technically correct batsman, and Ranji being noted for his innovation, particularly his use of the leg glance). Their friendship lasted well into the 1920s, and when Ranjitsinhji became one of India's three representatives at the League of Nations, he took Fry with him as his assistant.[53]

In athletics, Fry won Blues in all four years at Oxford 1892–95, representing the university against Cambridge in the long jump in 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1895; the high jump in 1892 and the 100 yards in 1893 and 1894.[54][55] In 1892 Fry broke the British long jump record with a jump of 23 feet 5 inches (7.14 m)[56] and a year later on 4 March 1893 equalled the world long jump record of 23 feet 6+1⁄2 inches (7.176 m)[57][58] (tied with the American Charles Reber).[58] This is often incorrectly claimed to have stood as a world record for 21 years, but this length of time actually only refers to how long he held the university record, Cambridge's H. S. O. Ashington adding three-quarters of an inch to Fry's distance in 1913.[59] Fry's shared world record was broken on 5 September 1894 by Ireland's J. J. Mooney.[60]

In the first contest between universities from different countries, Oxford v Yale at the Queen's Club, West Kensington, in 1894, Fry came third in the long jump and won the 100 yards.[61][62] In addition to being an outstanding long jumper, sprinter and high jumper, Fry was also a talented hurdler, once competing against Godfrey Shaw the champion hurdler of the time, who beat him but told him, as Fry later recalled: "He was sure if I took up hurdling seriously I might win the championship."[63][64] Fry was also president of the Oxford University athletics club in 1894.[34][65]

C. B. Fry

Personal information
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)	Full-back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1891–1903	Corinthian
1900–1902	Southampton	16	(0)
1902–1903	Portsmouth	2	(0)
International career
1901	England	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Fry's achievements extended to association football.

A defender with exceptional pace,[66] Fry learned his football at Repton School, where he played for and captained the school team.[15][67] While still at school he also played for the famous amateur club the Casuals, for whom he found himself turning out in an FA Cup tie at the age of sixteen.[15] Fry went on to win Blues in each of his four years at Oxford University captaining the side in his third year.[34][35][68] In 1891,[69] he joined another famous amateur club, the Corinthians, going on to make a total of 74 appearances for them between 1891 and 1903 scoring four goals.[70] Although extremely proud of his amateur status, he decided that entering the professional game would enhance his chance of international honours. He chose Southampton F.C. (The Saints), as the leading lights in the Southern League, and also because The Dell was conveniently close to his home. He made his debut for Southampton (as an amateur) on 26 December 1900,[71][72] against Tottenham Hotspur and went on to help them win the Southern League title during that 1900–01 season.[73][74][75]

Fry's game was probably a little too refined for the hurly-burly of professional football, he never relished the aerial challenges that were more prevalent in the professional game, but having worked tirelessly to improve his heading ability he achieved his aim of international honours when (along with Southampton's goalkeeper, Jack Robinson), he was picked to play as a full-back for England in the match against Ireland on 9 March 1901 (played in Southampton).[76][77]

The following season (1901–02), Southampton reached the FA Cup Final, playing against Sheffield United,[78][79] which was drawn 1–1,[79][80] but Southampton lost the replay, 2–1.[81][82] Although he had moments during the cup run in which he excelled, his positional play was sometimes questioned.[83][84] Fry played in all eight of the FA Cup games for Southampton that season,[85] but in only nine Southern League matches,[85][86] with Bill Henderson being forced to give way whenever Fry was available.[87] The following season, he played twice at centre forward, without success, but Southampton released him partly due to his lack of availability. Fry made 25 first-team appearances for Southampton.[85] He then joined Southampton's local rivals Portsmouth, making his debut for them on 21 January 1903.[66] Fry made three appearances for Portsmouth (as an amateur) before retiring from football due to injury.[66]

Fry wearing Barbarians kit, c.1893.

Fry played rugby union for Oxford University, narrowly missing out on a Blue in his final year due to injury,[16][17] Blackheath, for whom he made ten appearances,[88] and the Barbarians, for whom he made three appearances.[88][89] Fry was also chosen, as he later recalled, as the "first reserve for the South against the North" – a match that was, in effect, an England trial. Unfortunately for Fry, no one pulled out before the match and, as there were no substitutions allowed in rugby at the time, he did not get to play.[90][16][88]

Fry's party trick was to leap from a stationary position on the floor backwards onto a mantelpiece; he would face the mantelpiece, crouch down, take a leap upwards, turn in the air, and bow to the gallery with his feet planted on the shelf. Persuasion would occasionally get him to perform this turn at country houses, much to the interest of the guests.[5][7][8]

In 1896 Fry took up a teaching position at Charterhouse.[33] Two years later in 1898 he left the profession, moving on to a successful and much more lucrative and less time-consuming career in journalism. He later recalled: "I could earn by journalism three times the income for the expenditure of a tenth of the time."[91] In December 1908 he became the Captain Superintendent of the Training Ship Mercury,[92][51] a nautical school primarily designed to prepare boys for service in the Royal Navy; this was run by his wife Beatrice from 1885 to 1946, she having founded the school with her lover (and father of her illegitimate children), the rich banker Charles Hoare. She subjected the boys, 'hounded from morn to night', to 'barbarities' including ceremonial floggings of extreme violence and forced boxing matches inflicted as punishment.[27] Fry held this position until he resigned to make way for a younger man in 1950.[93] Eventually he was given the rank of captain in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR).[94] Alan Gibson wrote: "He ... would stride about in his uniform looking, as I think it was Robertson-Glasgow who said, every inch like six admirals."[95] Interviewed about the Mercury, and his role in its development, he was addressed as 'Commander C. B. Fry'.[96]

C. B. Fry in the early 1920s whilst standing for one of the Brighton seats

As far back as his time at Wadham College, Fry had been interested in politics, but admitted: "I take a great interest in heaps of things that I know nothing about ... politics for one".[97]

In 1920 when his friend and former Sussex teammate Ranjitsinhji was offered and accepted the chance to become one of India's three representatives at the newly created League of Nations in Geneva he took Fry with him as his assistant.[53] It was whilst working for Ranjitsinhji at the League of Nations, in Geneva, that Fry claimed to have been offered the throne of Albania.[98][99] Whether this offer genuinely occurred has been questioned, but Fry was definitely approached about the vacant Albanian throne and therefore seems to have been considered a credible candidate for the post.[100][101]

He stood (unsuccessfully) as a Liberal candidate for parliament for the Brighton constituency in 1922.[102] Fry's presence certainly brought some welcome glamour and excitement to the election, and his campaign was given extra colour by the appearance, at an election meeting, of Dame Clara Butt, the opera singer (and a close personal friend of the Frys).[103] He won 22,059 votes, 4,785 fewer than the Conservative victor.

He later fought the seat of Banbury in 1923, losing by just 219 votes,[104] and the Oxford by-election in 1924, where he was defeated by 1,842 votes.[105]

Fry in 1922

General Election 1922: Brighton[106]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	YRt Hon. George Clement Tryon	28,549	32.0
	Unionist	Y Sir Alfred Cooper Rawson	26,844	30.0
	Liberal	Charles Burgess Fry	22,059	24.7
	Ind. Unionist	H Wheater	11,913	13.3
Majority			4,785	5.3
Turnout				70.1
	Unionist hold		Swing

Books by Fry include:

• The Book of Cricket: A New Gallery of Famous Players (1899), editor, appeared in 14 weekly parts.[107]
• Giants of the Game: Being Reminiscences of the Stars of Cricket from Daft Down to the Present Day (c. 1900), with R. H. Lyttleton, W. J. Ford & George Giffen.
• Great Batsmen: Their Methods at a Glance (1905), with George W Beldam, who provided the photographs.[108]
• Great Bowlers and Fielders: Their Methods at a Glance (1907), with George W. Beldam
• A Mother's Son (1907), a novel written in collaboration with his wife.[109]
• Cricket: Batsmanship (1912).
• Key-Book of The League of Nations.[110]
• Life Worth Living: Some Phases Of An Englishman (1939), his autobiography.[105]
• Cricket on the Green For Club And Village Cricketers And For Boys (1947), with R. S. Young.

He is also believed to have written much of The Jubilee Book of Cricket (1897), of which the nominal author was Ranji.[111] He wrote prefaces and introductions for a number of other cricket books, and wrote articles on cricket and football for The Strand Magazine in the early years of the 20th century.[112] In the 1930s, he wrote a column for the London Evening Standard, which covered many topics.[105] The column was credited with a considerable increase in the paper's circulation.[95] He launched and edited C. B. Fry's Magazine. In his magazine he promoted toys such as the diabolo. A History and Bibliography of Fry's Magazine was published in December 2022 by Sports History Publishing.

His broadcasting career began in 1936 with commentary for the BBC on a match between Middlesex and Surrey. He declined to join the panel on Any Questions but in 1945 began a successful stint on The Brains Trust. In 1946 he was one of the BBC radio commentary team for the Tests between England and India.[113] In 1953 he gave a 3-hour interview to the BBC which was edited down to 30 minutes for the programme Frankly Speaking. In 1955, he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews for the fifth episode of the new television show This Is Your Life.[114][115] Amongst the friends gathered to relive his best moments were Jack Hobbs and Sydney Barnes.[114][116]