Lives in Cricket No 44 - LCH Palairet

of golf up to July. He again represented Devon, this time twice in July as they first beat Wiltshire 7-2, with Lionel winning his singles (foursomes were not played) and a few days later Devon beat 6-3 against Dorset, again Lionel winning his singles. In July, he also attended a Varsity dinner reunion at The Savoy in London. This was to celebrate the centenary of the Oxford- Cambridge match. The event meant hundreds of former players attended, among them Lord Harris, SamWoods and KJ Key. The press reported some attended the event who had played in the Varsity game over 50 years before. A number of speeches were made, and old friendships resumed from their college days. The press stated the dinner was a great success. Lionel, having had a quiet 1927 regarding golf, resumed his career and in April with Mrs Mitford won a mixed doubles tournament at Budleigh Salterton. He was also to play his last county games for Devon. In June he won both his singles and foursomes as they easily beat Wiltshire 12-3. Later in the month he lost both his singles and foursomes as Gloucestershire narrowly won 8-7. He managed then to win his foursomes as they beat Cornwall 9-5. It would appear though by the end of the year that his wife Caroline’s health was failing. As a result he resigned from all his posts, except for his golfing committees. By November the couple had bought a house in Lansdown near Bath. His return to Somerset was noticed, and the Somerset county club made him the club president for 1929. His obsession with making a contribution to the community soon led him to be elected vice- president of Bath Cricket Club in March. The following month he was a noted guest at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club’s annual dinner. Lionel also in March gave an interview to his local paper the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette . The newspaper commented that he had some interesting views on the current state of English cricket. In the article Lionel made the following comments: ‘In the old days we used to score 200 runs before lunch comfortably. Today it takes a whole day play to attain that number. The public are getting sick and tired of slow scoring The final years 114