Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

155 The Coach an umpire loved for his humour. The caption below the picture claimed that Leicestershire were ‘originators of the idea of physical training as part preparation for the coming season’. 275 Ben Martin, a member of the ground staff and Second XI, remembered Astill’s method of coaching out-fielding: he would stand at a stump and bat the ball out to fielders on the ground, encouraging them to ‘run like hell’ and throw in fast with an underarm flick in the Australian manner rather than the English over-arm. But he often told Martin that as a farmer’s son accustomed to throwing stones fast and straight to scare away the birds he could be excused. Hammond attributed the excellence of South African fielding in part to ‘a number of fine English coaches’ among whom he named Astill. 276 As for bowling and especially batting it seems that Astill took a decreasingly active role in demonstration: Dawkes even considered that at times he was a little lazy, but this seems a harsh judgement of what was probably a combination of coaching methodology and declining physical strength and health of a man who had now reached fifty. Apart from his ability to impart much shrewd advice, his greatest forte was probably the enthusiastic encouragement he gave the young, an encouragement all the more effective because it was allied with personal modesty. Although it has nothing to do with cricket, the opening of a letter that he wrote to a budding young authoress well demonstrates this aspect of his character. At long last I have settled down to write you a few lines, & to thank you most sincerely for the clever & interesting letters you have written to 275 It claimed that at Edgbaston Warwickshire was following Leicestershire’s lead. 276 Cricketers’ School , p 197. ‘Physical jerks’. Looking a little old-fashioned by modern standards, Leicestershire coach Alec Skelding’s methods of preparing for a new season were revolutionary at the time. Astill, posing perfectly for the camera in the left foreground, is joined by his team-mates, (l to r) Norman Armstrong, George Watson, Stewie Dempster, Philip Snow, Arthur Thompson and Leslie Berry.