Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

45 by the keeper and accomplishing the always difficult feat of clean bowling Philip Mead, deceiving him so decisively with flight that he played over the ball. Although his county ultimately lost the match comfortably, he at least had given it a first-innings lead. After a rain-wrecked match with Sussex in which his services were little needed, he continued his newly found form by dismissing six Yorkshiremen for only 47, but this time he could not even assure a lead on the first innings in a close but losing encounter. Astill’s sodden wings then drooped once more with a mere 12 wickets at 33.33 in his next five matches, before they dried and carried him to the lofty reaches of 20 for only 251 runs in just four innings. Wicketless for a long time at Portsmouth, he eventually had Mead caught behind and ‘bowl[ed] admirably during the latter part of the innings, when the batsmen’s desire was to score fast’, 95 to finish with five for 88 in another rain-spoiled encounter. At Aylestone Road, despite his four wickets in the first innings, Hobbs and Leicestershire’s future coach E.G.Hayes, were threatening by forceful methods to put the visitors in a commanding position when, keeping his nerve and accurate length, Astill dismissed both and took a further four wickets in Surrey’s collapse. Upon Leicestershire batting again against good bowling taking full advantage of a difficult wicket he found himself coming in at No.10 to join King in an attempt to stave off defeat; but he played ‘with the assurance and polish of the crack bat. Some of his strokes to leg were exceedingly graceful, and his driving showed plenty of power.’ But to no avail: King was stumped and Sturman run out for nought. Astill was probably too good a team-man to gain much consolation from his highest first-class score, an undefeated 39. Leicestershire then had to make the long and tiring journey to Dover, the year’s ‘water capital’, to meet Kent (already declared champions) only to be destroyed by Blythe; but, opening the bowling at last as reward for his recent achievements, Astill continued his recent form, clean bowling his future rival all-rounder Frank Woolley in a return of five for 64, which was also a test of stamina since his only relief was an over off to change ends. A final high-scoring game on a shirt-front at the Oval, doomed to a draw from the beginning, was thankfully ended by rain to complete his ‘curate’s egg’ of a season in which only a few parts were truly edible. Perhaps he suffered from the generally poor spirit of the team, for ‘Reynard’ attributed Leicestershire’s ‘decadence from the mediocre standard of 1907 and 1908’ 96 to ‘deficiences … more moral than physical’. In this it is unlikely that the reporter intended any particular criticism of the enthusiastic captain Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, 97 but that respected figure was too inexperienced to give much advice in field-placing to an Astill still learning his trade. For the youngster himself there were just a few small signs of encouragement in his late-season form with the ball, his tallest innings so far in first-class cricket and the fact that he had pushed 95 Wisden . 96 ‘Reynard’ is perhaps unkind. Rain sometimes destroyed the county’s chances of victories, some matches against strong teams were only narrowly lost, and the toss was won only three times. 97 Indeed The Times correspondent the following year went out of his way to praise the ‘keenness’ and ‘real sporting spirit’ of a man who ‘is not a natural cricketer at all’ but yet ‘handles the side admirably’. Next Year, Sometime, Never