Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

93 The Tourist: ‘a Joy to Know’ father, despite his occupation as a framework knitter at the time of Ewart’s birth, had opened his own increasingly prosperous business just ten years later, while his son, though leaving school early, had always tried to ‘better himself’. This extended even to cultivating an educated way of speaking or, as Snow put it, ‘this rather Sutcliffe way of speaking, out of the top drawer: although he hadn’t the same background as an amateur, he spoke like one’. His personal letters are noteworthy for their fluency and lightness of touch. The grammar is always correct and he even uses the subjunctive and scrupulously avoids split infinitives. Archbishop Temple, who once remarked that any fool could spell but it took a genius to punctuate, would have found him both fool and genius. 170 He always struck Philip Snow ‘as an exceedingly polished individual’ and his brother Eric as ‘a quite exceptional person’. Almost certainly his father and his uncle William Simmonds encouraged his attempts to improve his knowledge, for which he had a splendid example later in the Leicestershire team in the redoubtable autodidact Albert Knight. 171 Like his older colleague Jack King, he became a member of the Leicester Liberal Club and was possibly also a Freemason. 172 Certainly he was very knowledgeable about cricket, and consequently listened to with respect by fellow-players, and also sufficiently versed in a range of subjects to be an interesting conversationalist in many types of non-cricketing circles. In social gatherings the ladies admired him not only for his happy charm but also because he was an accomplished dancer, light on his feet. A further asset for a member of a touring party is ability in other games, indoors and outdoors, and this, as we have seen Astill had in abundance. There were probably many opportunities for him to indulge in such games, but we can note in particular one occasion in the West Indies when he displayed his expertise to many onlookers, taking on at billiards a Mr A.E.Roach of the Union Club in Barbados and winning by 500 points to 120, a ‘match enjoyed by a very large attendance of members and their friends’. 173 Doubtless his team-mates were enthusiastic and partisan spectators. And then there was his music. He played three instruments, the pianoforte, the ukulele and, less frequently, the banjo, and sang in a pleasing tenor voice to his own accompaniment. On one occasion he even sang on a BBC radio programme, but unfortunately the only thing that proud and anxious members of his family could remember was that he got one note wrong. Some players joked that he was selected for tours ‘for his singing’. 174 Wyatt considered him an entertaining pianist, though not as good as 170 Four letters to Miss Eileen Miller are in my possession, while two others to the same recipient were recently sold; Grace Briggs showed me a postcard sent to her father and in the David Frith archive is one addressed to a fellow officer. In all these the only word struck out or corrected is his name ‘W.E.Astill’ when he decided to drop formality with Miss Miller and sign himself ‘Bill’. 171 On Knight’s highly successful autodidacticism see Littlewood, J.H.King , pp 119-20. 172 This I was told, but without knowing to which of the innumerable lodges he may have been attached I have been unable to confirm it. 173 Quoted from ‘a newspaper cutting’ by the Leicester Mercury for 16 May, 1926. 174 Root, A Cricket Pro’s Lot , p 100.