Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

83 the fifth wicket in 90 minutes. His shoulder now somewhat improved, he encountered further misfortune in the home match with Nottinghamshire when after he had bowled a single over and was fielding at point a fierce square cut 153 hit him hard on the cheekbone just under his right eye with the result that he could take no further part in this match and missed the next although he did travel to Blackheath in the hope of playing. Restored to health he was largely responsible for Leicestershire’s home victory over Gloucestershire, taking five for 21 including the last four for one run, and then stemming the rot in a good stand with King (of which his share was 49) to prepare the way for a substantial lead on the first innings before his stand with Fowke ensured a win on the last day. Although he had an analysis of five for 97 in an extraneous match for MCC v Oxford University when Leicestershire did not have an engagement, Astill’s principal successes in the following six county matches (five of which were lost) came in batting. First came an enterprising 67 against Warwickshire, then a fighting, faultless 93 in two and a half hours at Old Trafford, where he alone mastered the pace of McDonald. The fun began when Bale joined Astill on the fall of the eighth wicket … in a stand that added no fewer than 80 runs to the score in 50 minutes. To their credit the Lancastrian crowd enjoyed every minute of it … In addition to a dozen 4’s, Astill brought off a very rare 6 – a cut, almost square, off McDonald, which pitched among the spectators just over the rails. [In the last stage of his innings] because the glare of the sun from behind the bowler’s arm was a little dazzling, … Astill had to resort to a cap. It was a Lancashire cap too, Ernest Tyldesley kindly obliging. The spectacle of Astill getting a lot of runs against Lancashire in a Lancashire cap was interesting indeed. Yet Astill could not save his side from defeat in his friend Jack King’s only match as captain any more than his six wickets and innings of 28 in a miserable total of 59 could against Hampshire, although the follow-on was at least narrowly saved. Two matches later it was his county’s opponents’ turn to collapse as having already finished off Derbyshire’s first innings in short order he took five for 19 when bowling unchanged with Skelding to dismiss them a second time for 67 and give himself match figures of eight for 28. A moderate time for bowling ensued as Astill was again bothered by a sore shoulder, but he entered a purple patch in batting, although no win for his county resulted. First at Coventry a ‘superb’ 109 ‘in his happiest vein with plenty of cutting and hearty driving’ took him past his 1,000 runs for the season and came within 49 of getting a first-innings lead. Then an ‘enterprising’ Bank Holiday 80, despite a wet wicket, would probably have brought victory over the ‘Cobblers’ but for rain. In an attritional war 154 for the lead with champions Yorkshire his 41 helped achieve this before his 153 Reports differ over the batsman: either Lilley or George Gunn. 154 36% of the overs in Leicestershire’s first innings were maidens, 43% in Yorkshire’s. Despite his sore shoulder Astill had an analysis of 41-19-60-3. The Times correspondent observed that he ‘was bowling with a strong regard for the unwritten law that the batsman should be continuously made to play the ball’. The First ‘Doubles’