Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

77 which he reached the boundary 27 times in a ‘brilliant display’ of 149 in a total of 249 for nine declared against Nairn and District. Shortly after, he followed a bright 63 against Northamptonshire in the Bank Holiday game at Leicester with his best figures of the season so far, six for 39, to ensure a very emphatic victory by an innings and 115 runs. Two memorable matches for his county were to come in mid August. At home in a victory over Glamorgan for a Leicestershire side unusually containing five amateurs, he scored, surprisingly for the first time, half- centuries in each innings of a match, the former, the main contribution to a disappointing total of 145, being a skilled and resolute 59. He then proceeded to take six for 51 at a rate far below two runs an over before bringing up his personal 1,000 runs for the season in a dazzling 69 (52 in fours) as he and the Oxford Blue C.H.Taylor put on 104 in 50 minutes when facing a deficit of 43. The subsequent disposal of the Welshmen he left largely to King and Geary. Play the next day at Edgbaston was denied by rain, but on the Tuesday, a draw now inevitable, his pronounced spin on a slow pitch brought his county the consolation of a lead on the first innings in 25 overs of ‘irreproachable length’ ( Wisden ). The first five Warwickshire wickets Astill took at a personal cost of ten runs before King bowled Wyatt, but he then accounted for the remaining four batsmen to finish with nine for 41. Statistically this was to remain the best analysis of his entire career. To celebrate he travelled up to Derby and in bowling The First ‘Doubles’ The Leicestershire scorebook of Astill’s career-best bowling figures for an innings, 9/41 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on 21 August 1923.