Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

100 vigorously to give his side a chance of victory that he made 158 not out with 26 fours in only 135 minutes before a declaration. With Sidwell (51) he put on 98 in 45 minutes, with his captain Rudd (38) 102 in 35, with Haydon Smith (2) 41 in 15. Again, however, it was to no avail as he alone could place any check on the ‘Lacemen’ as they raced to victory on the third day. Nevertheless, it was still a notable achievement by the visitors to improve upon their first innings of 172 by as many as 296. Astill had now improved his personal highest score twice in under four months, but the attention of the press was concentrated on another batsman, run out for 99 in his début for the county at the age of 49. He was, moreover, run out while batting with a fresh and newly arrived Astill; but the old Surrey hero and now Leicester’s coach, E.G.Hayes, generously absolved his younger partner of blame. 189 Having warmed up with a rapid 66 and seven wickets in 62 very economical overs in an easy innings victory over Derbyshire, Astill was the dominant figure in a tense game at Swansea where every run and every wicket counted. Cleverly bowled leg breaks brought him five wickets to force, in conjunction with Geary, a much improved and quite formidable Glamorgan side to concede a lead of 136; but a second venture by the visitors, miserable but for Astill’s intelligent 45 (to add to his earlier 29), gave the home side a real chance of victory. Turnbull and Dai Davies then supported the undefeated Walters so efficiently towards a target of 285 that at lunch a mere 24 were needed from the last four wickets and ‘victory looked a certainty’ for the Welsh county, only for Astill and Geary to take these wickets for nine runs, the last three for just two. Astill, who had exploited the leg trap with his customary shrewdness, finished with match figures of 11 for 130 in 68.2 overs. Although this was his county’s last victory of the season, his own all-round abilities continued to be demonstrated in a drawn encounter with Hampshire, when he scored a fine 54 while ‘his bowling … bordered on the brilliant, and the way he had batsmen guessing may be gauged from the fact that in the course of 32.5 overs he had six wickets for 50 runs’. Thereafter he concentrated on batting with half-centuries in each of the next three games before concluding his Championship season with four for 92 and four for 38 against Gloucestershire. Astill ended top of the county batting averages in the Championship (excluding the coach Hayes who had only seven innings) with 1,196 runs at 31.47 to complete his career ‘double’ of 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets; and, though failing by two to reach 100 wickets for Leicestershire, he ensured the completion of his sixth consecutive seasonal ‘double’ with the help of a few extraneous matches. In these his best performance was the taking of four fairly cheap wickets in early September for the Hon F.S.G.Calthorpe’s XI against the Hon L.H.Tennyson’s XI in a high-scoring game at Folkestone, where he also played a satisfactory rôle with bat and ball in helping MCC to beat Kent in the concluding match of the festival, indulging the crowd with cricket suitable to such an occasion in a half- century stand with Hendren at the rate of over 130 runs an hour. After 189 Keith Booth, Ernest Hayes , p 104. The Tourist: ‘a Joy to Know’