Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

Chapter Twelve The Last ‘Double’ and the Gentle Decline Leicestershire’s drop to twelfth position in 1930 with only four victories (all at home) was due to the resignation of the captaincy and limited participation by Dawson and a general and marked decline in batting. Since the new captain, J.A.F.M.P. de Lisle, 243 had spent nearly fourteen years in the jute trade in India and had never played regular cricket since his schooldays, he not unexpectedly made a negligible contribution. Certainly no fault could be found with Astill or Geary, the former once more achieving the ‘double’ in Championship matches alone, in which his batting average at 25.89 improved by more than two runs over the previous season although his bowling average at 21.59 for 106 wickets was just over three runs poorer. Wisden’s assertion that ‘he seldom failed with the bat’ is precariously supported by the facts that in the Championship he was dismissed in single figures 13 times and failed to pass 20 on 23 occasions in 43 attempts. He began and ended the season with half-centuries, a patient 57 only four days after his return from the heat of Jamaica against lowly Middlesex in a century stand with Geary that assured a first-innings lead, and 79 in hot weather at the Oval where he shared a stand of 106 in an hour with Riley in an hopeless attempt to save the match. At least he was able to complete the ‘double’, in his last possible innings, 244 chronologically the second all-rounder of the year to achieve the feat after James Langridge. His other four half-centuries came in the space of three weeks starting in mid-July. 56 with nine boundaries came in a loss at Taunton; while in the next match, on a pitch that had cut up badly at Worcester, he followed an undefeated 29 in 100 minutes, which compared well with the further 20 mustered by his colleagues, by opening the second innings in a despairing attempt to save the match through a dogged 54 in a further 140 minutes of grim resistance. In the home encounter with Glamorgan no play was possible until the third day, when his four wickets (all taken for two runs in 21 balls after lunch) helped bowl out the visitors for just 137, but he then had the frustration of battling to an unbeaten 61 only to see Geary run out in the last over and de Lisle unable to score off the remaining three balls when but a single run was required for a first-innings lead. 245 243 Through a marriage a few generations earlier he was descended from a line originating in Languedoc that later became connected with the English mediaeval monarchy. He was also a distant relation of Eddie Dawson. 244 He would probably have been spared this anxiety had he not missed three matches in mid-May because he was ‘not well’. 245 This would have given Leicestershire only one point more, for the regulations stated that in a drawn game the side leading on the first innings was awarded five points and the losers three, while if there were a tie or no result were obtained on the first innings each side would be awarded four points. 130