Arthur Phebey

Arthur Henry Phebey (1 October 1924 – 28 June 1998) was an English cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1946 and 1961. He played in 327 first-class cricket matches during his career as a right-handed opening batsman.[1]

Cricket career

Phebey was born at Catford in London in 1924.[1] He played cricket for Kent Schools in 1939 before serving as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War II.[2][3] He made his first-class debut for Kent in 1946, making 12 appearances for the side during the season. Primarily an opening batsman, Phebey did not play the following season and only appeared in two matches in 1948 before becoming a regular in the side between 1949 and his county retirement in 1961.[4]

Described as an "elegant" opening batsman,[5] Phebey was considered "correct and sound"[2] and was a "mainstay" of the side throughout his time at Kent.[6] In 1954 he and Arthur Fagg scored two century opening partnerships in the same match against Gloucestershire, only the second time a pair of Kent batsman had done so in the County Championship.[lower-alpha 1][7] In 1960 he played in the last first-class match in Britain to be concluded within a day's play. After being the first batsman out on the pitch at Tunbridge Wells, Phebey predicted that "if we get 200 on that, we'll win by an innings".[8] Kent made 187 runs and bowled Worcestershire out twice after 3:40 to win by an innings.[9]

In total Phebey played in 327 first-class matches, 320 of them for Kent.[lower-alpha 2] He scored 14,653 runs, including 14 centuries with a highest score of 157, and passed 1,000 runs each season between 1952 and 1960, leading the county in runs scored in 1956.[4][10] He bowled only 20 balls in his first-class career and did not take a wicket.[1] A 1956 cigarette card described him as "a very sound fielder"[11] and he took a total of 205 catches.[1] Writing in 1980, John Woodcock compared Neil Taylor, an emerging Kent opening batsman, to Phebey, saying that he was "adhesive, quite stylish and not ineffective".[12]

Football

As well as cricket, Phebey was a footballer. He played wartime cricket and football matches for Dulwich Hamlet F.C., at the time an amateur club, and when he signed professionally with Kent was forced to find another team.[4][6][11] He was part of the Hamlet junior side which won the 1939/40 London Minor Cup and has been described as "a post-war Hamlet star.[13] He played for Hendon F.C. during the 1950s.[11][14]

Later life

Phebey retired at the end of the 1961 season, finding himself sometimes out of the side for the first time and at other times batting further down the batting order as new opening batsmen Peter Richardson and Roger Prideaux established themselves.[15] He was active in the business community and was a member of the General Committee at Kent.[16][17] He died at Kingswood in Surrey in 1998. He was aged 73.[1]

Notes
  1. The next time a Kent pair scored two century opening partnerships in the same match was in 2016.
  2. The other seven matches were all played for MCC sides.

References
  1. Arthur Phebey, CricInfo. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  2. Moore D (1988) The History of Kent County Cricket Club, p. 128. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7470-2209-7
  3. Carlaw D (2020) Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939, p. 94. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-07-01.)
  4. Arthur Phebey, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-08-11. (subscription required)
  5. Ellis C, Pennell M (2010) Trophies and Tribulations: Forty Years of Kent Cricket, p. 212. London: Greenwich Publishing. ISBN 978-0-95640-810-5
  6. Kent cricket's footballers, Kent County Cricket Club, 19 November 2019. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  7. Bell-Drummond and Latham continue prolific start, CricInfo, 4 May 2016. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  8. Chalke S (2006) When three became one, CricInfo, January 2006. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  9. Steen R (2010) Done in one day, CricInfo, 9 June 2010. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  10. Moore, p. 130.
  11. Dulwich Hamlet Cricket Club, Hamlet Historian, 26 April 2016. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  12. Woodcock J (1980) Fifth century for Brearley but rain has final say, The Times, 6 September 1980, p. 15. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2022-08-11.)
  13. Hunnisett S (2020) Remembered at Last – The Jimmy Hoather Story, Centre for Historical Research, University of Wolverhampton, 8 October 2020. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  14. Former Staff - Arthur Phebey, Hendon AFC. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  15. Moore, pp. 141–142.
  16. Moore, p. 143.
  17. Tennant I (1998) Lehmann keen to make up lost time, The Times, 2 July 1998, p. 48. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2022-08-11.)
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