Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

55 battalions and disbanded, again without pomp, in 1922, ‘was not a famous regiment with glamour and whatnot, but a greater fighting corps, born for war only and not for parades.’ 111 It was a huge organization in which over 170,000 men served, of whom some 12,500 were killed, thereby giving it a reputation as the ‘Suicide Club’. Astill’s unit was engaged in fighting in Belgium between April and October 1918 and entered Germany in December 1918, but it has not been possible to find out our subject’s rôle in this. It seems he spoke very little of his wartime experiences. After the end of the war, in 1919, there was opportunity for cricket in the Cologne Post Competition with the Army of Occupation of the Rhine, a competition that began with no fewer than 179 teams. A note in the Regimental Journal of the White Lancers (the 17th Lancers) states that ‘A pitch was secured on the Exerzier Platz, Kalk, and with the co-operation of Lieut. Astill, the Leicestershire cricketer, it was turned into quite a good, though by no means perfect, wicket.’ The White Lancers won the cup, defeating the 29th Battalion the Machine Gun Corps in a semi-final, or ‘ante-final’ as it was called. Astill, batting at No.4, was caught in the slips for nought, but, opening the bowling, took four for 41. The winners’ Regimental Journal commented that ‘In Lieut. Astill and Cpl. Saddler … the regiment was up against the best pair of bowlers they met in the whole competition’. 112 The Sports Mercury back home in Leicester reported on ‘league’ cricket for the Army Occupation, but whether this was a preliminary to the cup or a different competition I have not been able to ascertain. On 9 August 1919, it stated that the 29th Machine Gun Corps, of which Astill was vice- captain, ‘are well in the running for the championship of the Rhine League’ and had ‘defeated their chief rivals, the 1st/6th Yorks and Lancs, a strong batting side, who were dismissed for 27 runs’. Astill took five for 8, ‘thus following up a brilliant all-round performance’ in the previous match that week when he had scored 97 not out and taken seven for 8. The following Saturday the newspaper informed its readers that the 29th had won all but one of their 19 games and that ‘Astill must be in tip-top form this season’, as his batting average stood at 65.50 with two recent centuries and he had taken 71 wickets ‘at an average cost of three runs each’. Some details follow such as 108 (retired) and seven for 6 v 13th HAC, who were all out for 12; 131 and six for 7 v 420th Siege Battery, who were all out for 22; and seven for 7 v 2nd Corps HQ, who were all out for 24. Clearly Astill was enjoying himself and playing his hardest, with no concessions to his opponents. What is interesting is his success as a batsman. Of course the general standard of opposing bowlers was far below that to which he had been accustomed in county cricket, but fast bowling on an unreliable and bumpy pitch can still tax the skill of the best batsmen. Did the handling of the Lewis gun which could fire up to 700 rounds per minute make him less scared of a projectile hurled from 111 For an account of life in the corps see G.A.Coppard, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai: the tale of a young Tommy in Kitchener’s army 1914-1918 , HMSO, London, 1969. 112 This information I again owe to Mike Spurrier. The New Man