Phil Mead
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| Full name | Charles Philip Mead | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 March 1887 Battersea, London, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 26 March 1958 (aged 71) Boscombe, Hampshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Left-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Slow left-arm orthodox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 174) | 15 December 1911 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 30 November 1928 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1905–1936 | Hampshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1910–1929 | Marylebone Cricket Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1938–1939 | Suffolk | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricinfo, 3 January 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Charles Phillip Mead (9 March 1887 – 26 March 1958) was an English professional cricketer who played in seventeen Test matches for England and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket, spanning 31 years. Mead was born in Battersea. Overlooked by Surrey, he joined Hampshire in 1903 and made his debut for the county in first-class cricket in 1905. He established himself in the Hampshire team as a left-handed batsman the following season. After passing 2,000 runs in a season for the first time in 1911, Mead was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was subsequently selected to tour Australia in 1911–12, making his Test debut against Australia. After success in the 1912 season, he toured South Africa, scoring his first Test century during the tour. Mead's appearances at Test level were infrequent, spanning seventeen matches across five series between 1911 and 1928. He scored nearly 1,200 runs in Tests, making four centuries. The paucity of his appearances at Test level were attributed to hostility toward his status as a professional batsman by England captain Plum Warner, playing for an "unfashionable" county, and an abundance of strong batsmen in county cricket competing for limited spaces in the England team. Despite the end of his Test career in 1928, Mead continued to play first-class cricket until 1936, when he was released by Hampshire at the age of 49. He then played two seasons of minor counties cricket for Suffolk in 1938 and 1939, whilst employed as a cricket coach at Framlingham College.
Mead holds many batting records. He is the fourth-highest run-scorer in first-class cricket, having scored over 55,000 runs during his career. He holds the record for the most runs in the County Championship, while his 2,843 runs in the 1928 County Championship constitutes an all-time record for a single season. He also made 153 first-class centuries during his career, the fourth-highest number by a batsman. His number of runs for Hampshire (48,892) is the greatest number any batsman has scored for a single first-class team. He also exceeded a thousand runs in every season of first-class cricket except his first – when he only played one match.
In later life, problems with his eyes which had begun in 1942 led to Mead becoming totally blind by August 1946. He retired to Bournemouth, where he died in hospital in March 1958, following an operation for internal bleeding.