Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

appointed the New Zealand captain C.S.Dempster as a furniture manager with the promise that he could also captain Leicestershire as an amateur. The only drawback was that he would not be qualified to play for the county in the Championship until 1936. So Leicestershire played their first match of the season 258 under the leadership of Lieutenant-Commander A.G.G.Webb of the Royal Navy, an admirable man and popular secretary of the Club, but one whose championship début this was and whose career figures were ultimately 27 runs in five completed innings. Astill ‘stepped into the breach’ for the opening home Championship game, but despite him directing a pulverising victory in only six hours and 45 minutes against a Sussex side still revelling in a score of 537 for six made just two days before, his appointment for the next match a week later was again only temporary, even though the local newspaper suggested that the county ‘may find it a paying proposition to rely on a regular captain from the paid ranks, rather than have frequent changes in this role for the sake of tradition’. Sanity eventually struck the committee and Astill was appointed captain for the rest of the season; yet his essentially provisional position was emphasised by the amateur Sharp captaining on the two occasions when he was available, by Dempster leading the team in all four non-Championship fixtures and by the official team photograph showing the New Zealander in the centre of the front row flanked by Geary and Astill. 258 Against Kent at Gravesend, a match that has a minor place in cricket history as providing the first instance of the new legislation for lbw being applied when Sunnucks was out for none to Haydon Smith, who of all the Leicestershire bowlers benefited most from it. 141 The Captain The official picture of Leicestershire CCC in 1935. Standing (l to r): H.A.Smith, F.T.Prentice, W.H.Marlow, C.L.Edgson, N.F.Armstrong, P.Corrall. Seated: L.G.Berry, W.E.Astill, C.S.Dempster, G.Geary, A.W.Shipman. Dempster seems to occupy the captain’s traditional seat although Astill led the side in the great majority of its Championship matches.