Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

67 as ‘amazing’. Although every year he dropped a few that he should have caught, he can fairly be described as a good fielder with a generally safe pair of hands, but not hands equal to those great buckets of George Geary which swallowed up their speeding spherical prey with unquestioned finality. When a quick decision had to be taken in the field to achieve a run-out, Astill was very reliable, and was alert too in other situations. On one occasion, when a ball snicked by Timms lodged between the heels of wicketkeeper Sidwell’s heels without apparently touching the ground first, Astill, amid the general bewilderment, plucked it forth and appealed for a catch, only to be denied by the umpires for no overt reason. 126 For Leicestershire Hallam and Whitehead alone held more catches than Astill, and in all matches only Lock and M.J.K.Smith caught a greater number, but these latter two spent only a small portion of their careers catching for the running fox. 126 During a match at Northampton on 3 August 1926. The Batsman and Fielder