Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

169 His Place in Leicestershire’s Annals more seasons, 32, in the official Championship, and only Ray Illingworth and W.G.Quaife have equalled his 30. 298 He and Herbert Sutcliffe alone of county cricketers appeared in the Championship in every season between the World Wars. He began his career one year after Jack Hobbs and two years before Grace played his last, snow-chilled, first-class match. In his early days he battled with ‘Long John’ Tunnicliffe, Archie MacLaren, ‘Monkey’ Hornby and Tom Hayward, in his heyday with Frank Woolley, Maurice Tate, Herbert Sutcliffe and Wally Hammond, and ended bowling to Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook. So much for statistics. For Leicestershire supporters and spectators in general the manner of his play was cause for pleasure. A ‘cricket correspondent’ of The Times declared in 1930 that the modern Robots exasperate us because they bat as if they were bored with the job, [but whereas] the prime duty of batsmen is to guard against defeat … [yet] Cricket is a game. It should therefore be played joyously by men with good red blood in their veins. 299 Except when doggedly attempting to save his side from defeat, and often not even then, the batsman Astill after the Great War, when circumstances allowed, showed to all his ‘good red blood’ in observing the imperial imperatives, ‘Find out where the ball is. Go there. Hit it.’ With strokes all round the wicket, some of forthright exuberance, others of refined delicacy, he was never unattractive and frequently supplied the brightest batting of the day. 298 Only seven players (Rhodes, Woolley, Mead, Gifford, Quaife, Hirst and Titmus) played in more Championship matches. A.N.Hornby played in 33 seasons, but his career began before the establishment of the official Championship. For further details see D.Jeater, ‘County Championship Appearances: 1864-1993’, The Cricket Statistician, 86, 1994, pp 33-36. 299 12 June in a review of Cardus’ “Cricket” in the English Heritage series. ‘My pleasure, Alan’: Astill signs a bat for Surrey player, Alan (H.A.) Peach under the watchful eye of ‘The Master’, Jack Hobbs