Ken Palmer

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Ken Palmer
England (ENG)
Ken Palmer
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling type Right-arm fast-medium
Tests First-class
Matches 1 314
Runs scored 10 7771
Batting average 10.00 20.72
100s/50s -/- 2/27
Top score 10 125*
Balls bowled 378 44254
Wickets 1 866
Bowling average 189.00 21.34
5 wickets in innings - 47
10 wickets in match - 5
Best bowling 1/113 9/57
Catches/stumpings -/- 158/-

Test debut: 1 June 1978
Last Test: 18 August 1994
Source: [1]


Kenneth Ernest Palmer (born April 22, 1937, Winchester, Hampshire) is a former English cricketer and umpire who played in one Test in 1965, and umpired 22 Tests and 23 One-day Internationals from 1977 to 2001.

Ken Palmer will be best remembered as one of England's longer serving umpires, but he also played one Test. Because of injuries to other bowlers, he was called up while coaching in Johannesburg to play in the fifth Test at Port Elizabeth on the 1964-65 England tour of South Africa. It was a poor debut on a pitch made for batting, and Palmer's one wicket cost 189 runs, which means his bowling average is the second worst in England's Test history (after John Warr).

A reliable all-rounder for Somerset between 1955 and 1969, he was a right-handed middle-order batsman and fast-medium bowler with a whippy action whose best season was 1961, when he achieved the "double" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets.

He was appointed as an umpire in 1972, and made his international debut in the England v Pakistan Test of June 1-5 1978. His brother Roy Palmer also played for Somerset and became a first-class and Test match umpire.