Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

126 The Test Player consequently achieve his eighth ‘double’. His only all-round triumph came in mid season in the victory over Glamorgan at Loughborough. Having with Geary run through the visitors on a pitch that had dried out badly, he showed what could be done by hitting 11 fours in a top-scoring undefeated 70 before the two veterans combined again to complete an innings victory. Geary had match-figures of ten for 74, Astill ten for 88. Amid many low scores only a few innings stand out, the most accomplished by far being 121 in two and a half hours on Middlesex’s first visit to Leicester since 1900, and first-ever to Aylestone Road. In a brilliant partnership of 151 with Shipman his innings ‘was the result of beautiful enterprise … and it is doubtful if he has ever been seen to better advantage for his variety of strokes’. Fittingly Leicestershire won the match. Two scores of exactly 60 were made against the two counties destined to finish first and second in the Championship. The first, with the aid of rain, saved the game at Trent Bridge, the second gave the visitors respectability at Liverpool when Astill, coming in as low as No.9 put on 124 in 90 minutes against McDonald and Richard Tyldesley at their most destructive. Much easier was his 68 at Kidderminster in a huge total of 551 for seven which ensured an overwhelming victory. He scored his runs out of 83 in just 45 minutes with 12 fours when Leicestershire put on a remarkable 255 before lunch on the second morning of the match. His highest score was, however, 127 at Oxford, which he accomplished with one six and 17 fours in more or less even time after a quiet start; but he was badly missed twice. His bowling was another matter. He never bowled poorly and was only rarely expensive: indeed in the Championship his economy rate was just 2.22 runs per over. On three occasions he took ten or more wickets in a match, once against Glamorgan as already mentioned, once against Surrey and once against Somerset, the latter two at Aylestone Road. First on a good wicket Leicestershire made 408 and Shepherd and Barling put on 105 for Surrey’s first wicket before Astill, exploiting the leg-trap and with help from Geary, dismissed the whole team for a further 81 runs. In the follow- on the visitors made a less ignoble performance, but Astill’s patience and subtly disguised variations in pace and spin brought him a further seven wickets in 40.1 overs to bring his match figures to 12 for 178. Against Somerset Astill took full advantage of a wicket that ‘suited him to a nicety’ in taking three for 28 and eight for 23, but the Somerset bowlers were almost as effective and Leicestershire won by only four wickets. A more creditable performance was in the return match at Taunton when he took seven for 34 after Leicestershire had declared at 311 for eight. His other five-wicket innings analysis occurred in the opening Championship fixture at Lord’s, where his five for 39 gave Leicestershire the possibility of victory in a low-scoring encounter; but the chance was not taken. Mention must be made of an innings in which he took no wicket: at Pontypridd when Geary broke the world record by dismissing all ten Welshmen for a mere 18 runs, Astill’s analysis was none for 31 in 16 overs. Nonetheless Geary wrote ‘Ewart Astill was bowling extraordinarily well