All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

86 Colin Blythe own side’s ‘recovery’. Blythe’s analysis is still a Kent record. Seven batsmen had failed to score, including future Test cricketer George Thompson. When he retired after the War Thompson was his county’s leading wicket- taker (and is still second highest) as well as having done the double twice. As he had failed to strike with his fast-medium bowling and would make only one run in the second innings, his contribution to ‘Blythe’s match’ had been untypically modest. Hot sun then began to make the wicket more difficult and unsurprisingly Northants, following on, did even worse making 39 (Blythe seven for 18). Any chances of another Blythe all-ten went quickly as Vials, opening this time, was bowled by Bill Fairservice for one, having been dropped by him off Blythe in the previous over. As Fairservice took 853 wickets for Kent, and was still scoring for the Second Eleven at the age of 87, he was well named. Cox, stumped off Blythe again, at least had the consolation of top scoring with 12. Blythe had bowled unchanged to become the first bowler to take 17 wickets in a day, a feat since repeated only by Hedley Verity and Tom Goddard. He had been well supported by his fielders, both close and further out, as batsmen tried to hit themselves out of trouble. Kent only just made it: the last few overs were played in drizzle, and soon after the last wicket fell heavy rain set in. Blythe had plenty of time to contemplate his great achievement as he missed the next two Kent games with a chill. Blythe’s career peaked in 1909 with 215 wickets, including 11 wickets against Australia in the First Test at Edgbaston. He had surpassed this achievement two years before at Headingley taking 15 wickets against South Africa. However, Wisden commented that he had ‘bowled himself to a standstill’. Certainly, Blythe found the strain of Test cricket stressful. This may account for the fact that he only played 19 times for England, and not at all after 1910 even though the powers of left-arm rival Wilfred Rhodes had temporarily waned. However, it was a very successful Test career: exactly 100 wickets at 18.63, at the time only the fourth England bowler to reach this milestone (after Johnny Briggs, George Lohmann and Bobby Peel). In August 1917 Blythe played in a one-day charity match at Lord’s for Navy and Army against Australians and South Africans. He only took one wicket, albeit a good one: Charlie Macartney. It was Blythe’s last appearance on a cricket field. By the end of the following month he was on his way to France, having already announced that he would be retiring from first-class cricket after the War. On the evening of 8 November near Passchendaele in Belgium, Sergeant Blythe attached to the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was struck by shrapnel and killed instantly. He was the most distinguished of the many cricketers who died in the conflict. Schoolmaster Lancelot Driffield, his tenth victim at Northampton, had died of natural causes a month before. Every year as part of the Cricket Week a wreath is laid on Colin Blythe’s memorial at the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury.