Patsy Hendren Becomes Middlesex's Star — Pre-War Emergence

Hendren came from a London Irish family and learned his cricket on Turnham Green. He was a Catholic in an overwhelmingly Anglican professional milieu.

His Middlesex career started in 1907 but was slow to take off; by 1911 he had broken through.

Elias Hendren, always known as Patsy, was a London-born Irishman who played his first Middlesex match aged 18 in 1907. By 1911 he was scoring 1,000 first-class runs in a season; by 1914 he had become a fixture in the Middlesex middle order. He served in the war, returned in 1919 and was selected for England the following year. His Test career — 51 matches, 7 centuries, average 47.63 — would have begun earlier without the war; his county career, eventually 170 first-class centuries (third on the all-time list behind Hobbs and Hammond), was already firmly under way by 1914. His fielding at deep mid-off and in the deep was reputedly the best of his generation. He was the crowd's favourite at Lord's for almost three decades.

“The merriest of men and the most reliable of batsmen.”

Hendren played Tests until 1935 and county cricket until 1937. He scored 170 first-class centuries.