Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

75 likely, as Cook appeared to be close to the popping crease all the time. The following match at The Oval saw him complete the ‘double’, second in the country to Woolley, as he scored the requisite runs early on in a watchful half-century having just taken another five-wicket haul with good-length off- and leg-breaks that kept the batsmen needing to play at every ball. A week later he scored another half-century of ‘rare skill and confidence’ at Cardiff, where rain saved the home side, before in the last Championship match of the season he and Geary performed a feat at Bristol that was fairly common in the nineteenth century but of great rarity at this time and never performed in the present era. 140 At the end of the rain-curtailed first day Leicestershire’s score stood at 70 for seven, but on the second a valiant and crucial stand for the ninth wicket by Lord and Sidwell put on 69. Then on the treacherous pitch the bowlers took over. In 40.4 overs Gloucestershire were dismissed for 73 by Astill and Geary bowling unchanged, and in a further 39.4 overs Leicestershire succumbed to Parker and Mills, also bowling unchanged, for 76. The home side needed 147 to win on the final morning, but 37.2 overs later they were all out for 72, the two Leicestershire bowlers for the second time bowling unchanged, Astill’s figures for the two innings being six for 28 and four for 37, Geary’s four for 42 and six for 26, a difference of only three runs for the same number of wickets. The game could have been even more remarkable, for, had Dipper not been called on for five overs, Parker and Mills would also have bowled unchanged throughout two innings. Fresh from this triumph, Astill travelled up to Scarborough for the first match of the festival and on a good pitch against the champions took the first three wickets, the notable trio of Holmes, Sutcliffe and Kilner, before deceiving Leyland with a fast ball and adding Dolphin and Waddington, five of his victims being bowled. Shortly before this ‘Reynard’ reported that he had ‘renewed his agreement with the county club, so that his services are now secured for a further period of years,’ despite ‘tempting offers from league clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire’. 141 Leicestershire in 1923 for the second successive year finished a lowly fourteenth, albeit only a fraction of a point behind Essex; and they won one fewer match than in the previous year. The batting was abysmal, of the regular players only the 52-year-old King and Astill having respectable averages; the bowling depended largely on Geary and Astill, top two in the averages, who between them bowled over 61% of the Championship overs. Astill again accomplished the Championship ‘double’ (and was ‘a treasure to his captain’ 142 ), but with Geary taking more of the workload his total dropped to exactly 100 while his average was also a little poorer at 21.94. There were, too, fewer memorable days for him this year: indeed he had to wait until his 21st match before he took five wickets in an innings and he was often replaced as Geary’s opening partner. 140 The Cricketer (9 September 1922) cites the previous instances for Leicestershire, all prior to granting of first-class status – by Marshall and Warrington v Nottinghamshire in 1845, Parnham and Rylott v Sussex in 1880, and by Rylott and Pougher v Surrey in 1886 and 1888. 141 Leicester Sports Mercury , 26 August 1922. 142 The Cricketer Annual, 1923/24 , p 16. The First ‘Doubles’