Charles Fry

Charles Anthony Fry (born 14 January 1940) is an English former first-class cricketer and now a cricket administrator.^[1] He is the grandson of the legendary C. B. Fry – his father Stephen Fry also played first-class cricket for Hampshire.

Charles Fry was educated at Repton School where he was captain of cricket. He made his first-class debut for Oxford University in 1959 scoring 576 runs at an average of 26.18 including a maiden century against the Free Foresters, sharing an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 256 with Abbas Ali Baig which remains a first-class record for the fifth wicket for Oxford.^[2] He won a Blue and subsequently played in two more Varsity matches as a middle-order batsman, in the second of which he stood in as wicket-keeper.

Fry played a handful of matches for Hampshire in the 1960 season in one of which he was twice bowled (for 14 and 1) in a match (versus Sussex) by one of his successors as President of the MCC Robin Marlar.^[3] He did not appear for the County in their championship-winning season in 1961.

Fry appeared once for Northamptonshire in 1962 and a couple of times for the Free Foresters against his old University later in the 1960s. Fry has had a long association with the Marylebone Cricket Club whose President he became in 2003-04. He was widely praised for choosing Tom Graveney as his successor – the first time an ex-professional cricketer had held this office. Fry has held many other positions within the MCC, including chairman of the club itself and, most recently, chairman of the MCC Foundation.^[4]

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