Famous Cricketers No 39 - D.C.S.Compton

revealed that serious consideration had been given to taking Compton to Australia in the ensuing winter as a member of G.O.Allen’s side in quest of the Ashes. It was felt however that he would have been too young to make the trip and might have done some damage to his future very bright prospects. Cricket’s loss was Arsenal’s gain and he soon made his first team debut in the match versus Derby County on 26th September 1936 at Highbury. In all he played in 14 League matches that season scoring four goals from the outside left position. 1937 saw Denis consolidate his position as one of the most promising young batsmen in the country. He appeared for the Players at Lord’s against the Gentlemen and this was followed by his Test debut at Kennington Oval in the final match of the three game rubber against New Zealand. At 19 years 83 days he became the youngest Test cricketer to represent England, a record subsequently beaten by Brian Close in 1949. He finished his second first-class season with 1345 runs at an average of 44.83 scoring two centuries. 1938 saw the batting of Denis Compton advance rapidly. He performed well in the first two Test matches against Australia, making a splendid 102 at Trent Bridge in a drawn match dominated by batting, in particular a memorable innings by Stan McCabe. At Lord’s Denis managed 76 in the second innings in another drawn game. Strangely he did not contribute more than a single to the mammoth England total of 903-7d in the final Test at Kennington Oval in the contest known as Hutton’s match. Arsenal refused to release Compton for the winter tour to South Africa for which he would have been an automatic choice. Somewhat perversely he made only one League appearance for that club during the whole of that winter. The last pre-war season proved to be one of Denis’s best to date. He made as many as eight centuries including his first double hundred and played in all three of the Tests against the visiting West Indians. He made his first Test century, at Lord’s. The onset of the Second World War put paid to any more first-class cricket in England for a further six years. Denis suffered this loss when he had just run into his peak form and who knows to what heights he might have risen in the early nineteen-forties. Compton joined the Army Physical Training Corps in 1939 being eventually promoted to the rank of Company Sergeant Major and seconded to an Artillery Regiment as a P.T. Instructor. Prior to this he had joined the Police War Reserve and played a match at Lord’s on 26th September against the Metropolitan Police on the Nursery Ground. The 1939/40 season saw him play a considerable number of soccer matches both for Army representative teams and for Arsenal. During 1940 he was able to play a number of matches at Lord’s as he was stationed conveniently at Aldershot. Highlights included innings of 101 and 73 for Sir Pelham Warner’s XI against the West Indies and the Club Cricket Conference. On 1st March 1941 he married Miss Doris Rich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Rich, at St. John’s Church, St. John’s Wood, the reception being held at the Lord’s Tavern. Immediately afterwards he went off to Watford to play for Arsenal in a League War Cup tie. There was one son of the marriage, Brian, who was born on 2nd January 1942 at Palmer’s Green. Denis played a great deal of top class wartime cricket in the following two seasons, mostly for London Counties and Army teams. In the latter half of 1943 he sailed for India where fortunately he was able to resume his first-class career. In the 1944/45 season he managed to play eight matches for various teams and three for Holkar State in which in his last match he made a splendid 249, his then highest first-class score. In the 1945/46 season he played in just two games, one of which , against the visiting Australian Services side fresh from their triumphs in England in 1945, was interrupted by a riot. It was in this game that he made the acquaintance of Keith Miller; they were to become life-long friends. Compton returned to England in 4