Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

175 Appendix A A Radio Interview Through the good offices of the Leicestershire CCC archivist Richard Holdridge I have, since completing the text of this biography, obtained a copy of a handwritten transcript serendipitously retrieved by John Astill, son of Ewart’s brother Lawson, of an interview broadcast on BBC Midland Region from 8.40 to 9.00 p.m. on Friday 13 August 1937.  It is of considerable interest and is a unique record of Astill’s own spoken words.  The interviewer was named Morris. (I have corrected a few errors in spelling and made some changes in punctuation.)  MORRIS: Well, last ‘Cricket Interval’ Bob Crisp came along and told us what he thought of touring in England. This evening Ewart Astill, who has often skippered Leicestershire and toured with English sides in the colonies, has come along to give you his impressions of touring abroad. ASTILL: Look here, Mr Morris, before you give my character away completely, remember I was never asked to go to Australia, so I can’t talk about Australia. MORRIS: Well, we’ll let you off that. Anyhow, where did you tour? ASTILL: Twice each to South Africa and the West Indies, and with A.E.R.Gilligan’s team – that was the first one after the war, in 1927, to India – but I’ve been over to Jamaica four times coaching and South Africa three times. MORRIS Well, you ought to know your way around.  I know Dogberry said ‘comparisons are odorous’, but tell us, how did they compare? ASTILL: I’ve summed it up this way: West Indies as the most pleasant owing to the marvellous climate and having no hot and dusty train journeys; India the most interesting; and South Africa the most strenuous from a cricket standpoint, with lots of unpleasant journeys by train. MORRIS: Well, you seem to have had a pleasantly varied time. Tell me, where did you find the keenest cricketers? ASTILL: In the West Indies definitely, especially amongst the natives. One sees small boys on every piece of waste land, and they generally adopt the names of famous players they have seen out there and also of Australians they have only read about. Also as spectators they are most sporting, keen, intelligent critics, much more tolerant of good defensive batting against good bowling than English crowds. I regret this is true, but I must admit I found it so. Mr Challoner, the famous West Indies and Barbados batsman, once told me that, if there was ever any trouble with the natives,