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Symonds: Parfitt was among best in the world

Former St. George's and Bermuda Cup Match captain Cal (Bummy) Symonds says he isn't exaggerating when he says that Clarence Parfitt, at his peak in the 1960s and ‘70s, was not just the best bowler in Bermuda but also the world.Symonds won every Cup Match that Parfitt played under him, from 1965 until he own retirement after the '69 match. In nine years as captain he won Cup Match eight times. He says Parfitt was unquestionably in a class of his own.“In the five years that I had him he was great,” said his former captain. “To me Clarence was the greatest bowler in the world. I haven't had anybody rebut me yet. The boy was good and should have been out of here when he was 22-years-old.“He was easy going and I told him ‘you can take the ball away but you've got to learn to bring it back into the batsman and he developed that. A lot of people couldn't read him. He was a great bowler, I saw “Cocky' Steede play but nobody could bowl like Clarence Parfitt.“When he went overseas and played at Lord's he almost bowled the MCC out.”Players with Parfitt's unique talent only came around every few generations, said Symonds, now 79.“I haven't seen anybody like him, it's been 40 years now. Right now we've got momma's boys playing cricket, they still have their Huggies on.“There is nobody like Clarence and I've travelled to a lot of Test matches. Unfortunately Clarence was born in Bermuda. He would have played for England if he had gone to England at that time.“He will go down in history in Bermuda and overseas, he was brilliant. I talk about him all the time and I will go to my grave saying he was the best bowler in the world. I've been saying it every since I retired.”Symonds was saddened to learn of the death this week of Jackie Durham, one of the players who played under him in that dominant St. George's team in the 1960s.“Jackie was a scholar of the game, he was in that great 1960 team, right along up until I retired,” Symonds said. “He was a brilliant opening bat.”