Charles Tarbox

Charles Victor Tarbox, sometimes known as "Percy" (2 July 1891 – 15 June 1978) was an English cricketer who played over 200 first-class games for Worcestershire in the 1920s. He also played at minor counties level for Hertfordshire, and later still stood as a first-class umpire in both England and South Africa. Tarbox's career statistics were fairly modest, but as his obituary in Wisden noted, he frequently chipped in with a few useful runs or wickets, valuable commodities for the generally weak Worcestershire sides of the day. A few weeks later, and against the same opponents, he achieved what was to prove his only ten-wicket match haul, picking up 4–126 and then 6–32 in a big Worcestershire victory at Taunton. He ended 1921 with 629 runs at 17.97 and 47 wickets at 27.29.

Wisden said that Tarbox "never fulfilled the promise" of that first season. As a batsman, the highlights were the only two centuries of his career: 103 not out against local rivals Warwickshire at Edgbaston in May 1925, and 109 – in an innings in which the second highest score was 29 – against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in July 1927.

The 1929 season was a poor one for Tarbox – he averaged under 12 with the bat and over 42 with the ball – and Worcestershire released him at the end of the summer.

After his last game for Hertfordshire in 1934, Tarbox became an umpire, and stood in over 150 English first-class games between 1936 and 1947. He then added another ten matches as an umpire in South Africa.