Thomas Perkins

Thomas Tosswill Norwood Perkins (19 December 1870 – 26 July 1946) was an English schoolmaster, a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Kent, and a footballer who captained the university side at Cambridge. Early life Perkins was born at Strood in Kent, the son of the Rev Thomas Norwood Perkins, the curate of Strood in 1870, and his wife, the former Emily Louisa Tosswill. He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and Jesus College, Cambridge. Before going to Cambridge University in 1891, he was an assistant schoolmaster at Oxford and Great Yarmouth; he was almost 21 when he started at Cambridge. Sporting career Perkins won a Blue for association football in all three years he was at Cambridge. He was described in his Wisden obituary as a "powerful soccer player" who played with "dash at centre-forward". He captained the Cambridge side in 1894-95 as Cambridge beat Oxford in the varsity match. He went on to play football for Cornwall, Norfolk and Essex. Perkins did not appear in the university cricket team until his second year, when he established himself as a right-handed lower or middle-order batsman. In his second first-class match, a 12-a-side game against the Gentlemen of England team, he batted at No 9 and top-scored with an unbeaten 57 in the first Cambridge innings. The 1893 University Match against Oxford University was won easily by Cambridge, and Perkins, batting at No 8, scored 18 and 37. After the university term was over, Perkins played for Kent, and in the game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge he scored 109, which was his only first-class century.