Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

84 The First ‘Doubles’ initially cautious and later carefree undefeated 70 denied any possibility of ultimate defeat. A confident and faultless, albeit ultra-cautious, 67 in nearly three hours on a sodden wicket in poor light, easily the highest score of the innings, was the feature of a rain-wrecked match at The Oval. An undefeated 34 out of a hardly grand total of 77, for which ‘he needed all his skills in defence to avoid the various traps’ of Boyes, and a subsequent 43 were unable to avoid defeat at Bournemouth, as was his top-scoring and confident 55 against Tate and Wensley at Leicester. After these notable innings he lost his batting touch but regained form in bowling in the last two of Leicestershire’s string of three successive away victories to close the season. Without great help from the wicket he ‘did his work uncommonly well’ in taking six for 27 to hurry out an overwhelmed Gloucestershire, while at Leyton he began by bowling more maidens (14) than conceding runs (13) in dismissing four batsmen before completing the rout with another five wickets in the second innings. He thus finished with 96 wickets for the county, but had completed the ‘double’ thanks to the five-wicket haul earlier in the season for MCC at Lord’s against the Dark Blues. Perhaps tired and wishing to recuperate before the rigours of a tour of the West Indies, his selection for which had just been announced, he took but a single wicket and scored a negligible number of runs in the three matches of the Scarborough Festival in September. One curiosity from this season deserves mention. In late July Leicestershire toured Scotland with an initial stop in Ashbrooke where Astill scored 52 against the Minor Counties side Durham. Since he had represented MCC against Cambridgeshire in 1914, he thus played against all the counties that to the present day have competed in the Championship. 155 155 Unlike his colleague King who also achieved this distinction, he never played against London County, disbanded shortly before his début, but this creation of Grace never partook in the Championship proper. For MCC Astill played also in second-class matches that I have been able to trace against Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Wiltshire. Another appearance at Scarborough, this time with C.I.Thornton’s XI against the touring South Africans in 1929. (l to r): H.Sutcliffe, M.W.Tate, G.Geary, W.E.Astill, J.B.Hobbs, N.E.Haig (capt), E.H.Hendren, F.W.Gilligan, K.S.Duleepsinhji, R.E.S.Wyatt, E.W.Dawson. This match was a very good one and ended in an exciting draw.