Errol Reginald Thorold Holmes (21 August 1905 – 16 August 1960) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Surrey and England between 1924 and 1955. A dashing right-handed batsman, Holmes believed that cricket was to be enjoyed and was an important figure in restoring the reputation of English cricket after the Bodyline controversy of the early 1930s. He succeeded the Bodyline captain Douglas Jardine as captain of Surrey in 1934 and resolutely refused to use short-pitched bowling in county matches. He also captained the "goodwill" Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) non-Test tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1935–36. Schools Holmes attended Park View School in South Godstone, Surrey, and St Andrew's School, Eastbourne, before going to Malvern College in Worcestershire in 1919, where he was coached at cricket by Charles Toppin. In a school match in 1922 he took 10 for 36 in an innings. He captained the First XI in 1923 and 1924. He first played for Surrey in 1924 before going up to Trinity College, Oxford. Oxford Holmes came to prominence as a hard-hitting batsman for Oxford University from 1925 to 1927, also playing a few matches for Surrey and for the Gentlemen against the Players. He also bowled fast-medium, though it was reported that his run-up tended to be rather more fearsome than the bowling that resulted from it. He gained blues in football and cricket in his first year. At a time when, he said, it was "desirable but by no means essential" for an Oxbridge student to finish with a degree, he approached his studies light-heartedly and did not sit for his exams in his final year, preferring to concentrate on his captaincy of the Oxford cricket team. He scored a century in the match against Cambridge, but Oxford lost. In the match against Free Foresters a few weeks earlier he had scored 236, including four sixes off four balls, and declared at the end of the first day when Oxford had made 520 for 8. During the General Strike of 1926 he served as a postman, delivering mail in his Darracq to the villages around Oxford. He toured Jamaica in February and March 1927 in a team captained by the Hon. L. H. Tennyson that played three first-class matches against Jamaica. Business and cricket career After Oxford, Holmes left first-class cricket to work on the Stock Exchange. He worked for