Tich Freeman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Tich Freeman

Freeman (right) with Charlie Wright in about 1930
Personal information
Full name	Alfred Percy Freeman
Born	(1888-05-17)17 May 1888 Lewisham, Kent, England
Died	28 January 1965(1965-01-28) (aged 76) Bearsted, Kent, England
Nickname	Tich
Height	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right arm leg break
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	England (1924–1929)
Test debut (cap 222)	19 December 1924 v Australia
Last Test	17 August 1929 v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1914–1936	Kent
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 12 592 Runs scored 154 4,961 Batting average 14.00 9.50 100s/50s 0/1 0/4 Top score 50* 66 Balls bowled 3,732 154,312 Wickets 66 3,776 Bowling average 25.86 18.42 5 wickets in innings 5 386 10 wickets in match 3 140 Best bowling 7/71 10/53 Catches/stumpings 4/– 238/1
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 8 April 2016

Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman (born May 17, 1888 – died January 28, 1965) was a famous English first-class cricketer. Everyone called him 'Tich' because he was quite short! He was a special kind of bowler called a leg spin bowler. He played for Kent and also for the England national team. Tich Freeman holds an amazing record: he's the only player ever to get 300 wickets in one English cricket season! He's also the second best wicket-taker in the entire history of first-class cricket.

Tich Freeman's Cricket Journey

Tich Freeman got his nickname because he was only about 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall. Even though he was short, he was very strong. His strong fingers helped him bowl for a long time without getting tired. He really hated it when coaches took him out of the game!

How He Bowled

Tich's height made his bowled balls travel low to the ground. This made it hard for batsmen to hit them properly. If a batsman didn't hit the ball straight, or if their feet weren't in the right place, they usually didn't last long against him.

Tich mostly used a leg-break ball. This ball would land on the middle or leg side of the pitch, making batsmen have to play at it. He also had a top-spinner that was very tricky to spot. This special ball helped him get hundreds of wickets. He didn't use his googly ball very often.

His way of holding the ball was a bit unusual for a leg spinner. Because he was small and had small hands, he held the ball with his thumb, middle, and index fingers. Most leg spinners use their palm, index finger, and ring finger.

Starting His Career

Two of Tich's brothers also played cricket for Essex. Tich played for local clubs in the early 1910s. In 1914, the Kent team signed him up. He did very well with their Second Eleven team. Soon, he was playing regularly for the main county team.

However, World War I stopped county cricket for several years. Before the war, he showed how good he was by taking 7 wickets for only 25 runs against Warwickshire. When cricket started again in 1919, he quickly became even better.

Rising Star

In 1919, Tich took 60 wickets in a short season. He then took 102 wickets in 1920, 166 in 1921, and 194 in 1922. Because of his amazing skills, he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1923. In 1922, he took an incredible 17 wickets for just 67 runs against Sussex on a wet pitch.

In 1924, Tich's bowling for the Players team (where he took 6 wickets for 52 runs) earned him a spot on the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour to Australia. But the pitches in Australia were very hard. Also, Australian batsmen were very good at moving their feet. This meant Tich was expensive in the two Tests he played.

Tich continued to be the main bowler for Kent for the next three years. However, he wasn't as successful against South Africa in 1927–1928.

His Best Years

The year 1928 was Tich Freeman's most successful. He set his record of 304 first-class wickets. This included 22 wickets in three Test matches against the West Indies. He also took 9 wickets for 104 runs against them while playing for Kent.

In 1929, Tich took 22 wickets in two Tests against South Africa. But in the Fifth Test, their batsmen played him very well. He didn't take any wickets in 49 overs and gave away 169 runs. This match turned out to be his last Test.

Even so, from 1930 to 1933, the Kent team relied a lot on Tich's bowling. During these years, he took 951 wickets in the County Championship. This was more than 55 percent of all of Kent's wickets! Each wicket cost only about 15.21 runs.

Some of his best performances during these years included:

• 17 wickets for 92 runs against Warwickshire in 1932.
• 16 wickets for 82 runs against Northamptonshire in 1932.
• 16 wickets for 94 runs against Essex in 1930 (including 10 wickets for 53 runs in one innings!).
• 15 wickets for 94 runs against Somerset in 1931.
• 10 wickets for 79 runs in one innings against Lancashire in 1931.

Tich even did well against the strong Australian team in 1930, taking 5 wickets for 78 runs. But he was never chosen to play in a home Ashes Test match against Australia. He was very effective against Leicestershire, taking wickets for only 11 runs each. However, he found it harder against the strong Surrey batting teams, where his wickets cost more than 26 runs each.

Later Career

In 1934 and 1935, Tich Freeman was still the top wicket-taker in England. But his average number of runs per wicket slowly went up. It rose from about 15 to over 21 runs per wicket. He wasn't as successful as before, even when the ground conditions helped him. Still, he worked very hard and took many wickets.

In early 1936, Tich started strong again, taking 70 wickets in his first fourteen matches. But his performance then got worse. He only took 33 wickets in the next fourteen games. Because of this, Kent did not offer him a contract for 1937.

After leaving Kent, Tich played for Walsall in the Birmingham And District League for a few years. In 1949, he was given a special lifetime membership to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). After he retired from cricket, Tich opened a chain of sports shops with his old Kent teammate, Jack Hubble. He even named his retirement home "Dunbowlin'".

Amazing Records

Tich Freeman holds many incredible bowling records:

• He took 1673 wickets in six seasons in a row, from 1928 to 1933. In each of these seasons, he took over 250 wickets. No other bowler has done this even once since 1901!
• He took 10 wickets in one innings three times (in 1929, 1930, and 1931).
• He took 17 wickets in a match twice (in 1922 and 1932).
• He bowled the most balls in a season in 1928, 1930, and 1933.
• He took 10 or more wickets in a match 140 times! This is more than 50% more than his closest rival, Charlie Parker.
• Almost half (48.6%) of his 3776 first-class wickets were taken without help from other fielders. This means they were either bowled (hitting the stumps), caught and bowled (he caught the ball himself), leg before wicket (hitting the batsman's leg), or hit wicket (the batsman hit their own stumps).
• He is second only to Wilfred Rhodes for the most first-class wickets ever. Tich got his wickets in much fewer matches (3,776 wickets in 592 matches) compared to Rhodes (4,204 wickets in 1,110 matches). He is also second to Wilfred Rhodes for the most wickets in all types of cricket (List A, first-class, T20).
• He holds the record for taking the most "five-wicket hauls" in first-class cricket. A five-wicket haul is when a bowler takes 5 or more wickets in one innings. Tich's total of 386 is 99 more than Rhodes's total!