Philip Hope

Philip Palmer Hope (10 February 1889 – 19 May 1962) played first-class cricket for Somerset from 1914 to 1925.^[1] He was born at Hartlepool, County Durham and died at Clifton, Bristol.

Hope was a right-handed middle or lower order batsman and an occasional right-arm fast-medium bowler. He was educated at Sherborne School and played Minor Counties cricket for Dorset up to 1913.

His first-class cricket for Somerset was restricted largely to three seasons, 1914, 1919 and 1921, though in each of these he was a fairly regular member of the side. In 1914, his one substantial innings was 65 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield.^[2] Earlier, by making 18, he had contributed exactly half the runs made from the bat in the second innings against Hampshire at Bath.^[3]

Hope returned to first-class cricket for a dozen games in 1919 and improved his personal best by scoring 68 in the match against Gloucestershire at Taunton.^[4] This was the match in which Sydney Rippon, with whom Hope shared a 99-run first innings partnership that set Somerset on course to victory, played under an assumed name.^[5][6] Hope did not play in 1920, but returned to Somerset for a further dozen games in 1921, when he again improved his highest score, this time scoring 77, more than double the second highest score, in the match against Essex at Bath.^[7]

After 1921, however, Hope left regular first-class cricket, making just one further appearance for Somerset in the 1925 season.^[8]

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