Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

7 until my academic duties allowed me the necessary leisure. Nevertheless, I know that my efforts to give flesh to the few still available disiecta membra of a notable cricketer and man are inadequate. Fame is fleeting, but a craving for it is seemingly part of what constitutes modern homo sapiens . When the Roman gentleman Pliny the Younger wrote to Tacitus, congratulating him on his historical writing and expressing the belief that it was destined for immortality, he added an account of one of his own actions in the hope that Tacitus would include it and thus immortalize him too. 7 It is far too much for me to hope that this biography will endure as long as have some of Tacitus’ works of two millennia ago, but may it for the present give some solace to Ewart Astill’s shade as at least ‘something small but his own’. 8 N.B.Unless otherwise stated all quotations from match reports are taken from the relevant day of the Leicester ( Daily ) Mercury or, less frequently, its Saturday sports edition, the Sports Mercury. Those indicated by The Times are from the next day’s issue, those by Wisden from the relevant report in the following year’s almanack. All quotations of and information attributed to individuals were recorded in private conversations (or occasionally by letter). My practice was to take a tape-recorder (but much of the most interesting conversation took place after I had turned it off), make notes later from the recording and send it to the individual for addition and correction of any misapprehension on my part. London, Ontario, Canada May 2014 7 Ep. 7.33. 8 Adapted from Homer, Iliad 1.167. Preface