Lives in Cricket No 45 - Brief Candles 2

108 and he could not have failed to be impressed as his rector piled up the runs for both clubs season after season. The averages included in Alfred’s scrapbook show that between 1904 and 1912 he scored 1,581 runs for Frome Valley at an average just a shade under 30, while between 1903 and 1914 he scored a further 2,857 runs for Herefordshire at an average approaching 36. He did so in attractive style too - reports of some of his innings over this period include the following: ‘his crisp cutting was a thing of beauty … his runs are made in irreproachable style, and his late cutting is ever crisp and clean … [he was] scoring in his customary polished style [and] can justly lay claim to the title of Herefordshire’s best batsman. His placing is of the most correct order, and he is the best judge of a run that I know 81 … that stylish cricketer the Reverend A.E.Green-Price … at the present moment there is no finer cricketer in the county’s ranks. He can apparently bat as well as ever, 82 and that means a delightful exhibition of stylish and correct cricket throughout his stay at the wickets. Only last week I referred to his smart fielding, whilst he is very quick between the wickets, and like every really keen cricketer takes infinite delight in the sweets of a stolen run … a charming batsman to watch, and his successes are always appreciated by the onlookers, as a better sportsman it would be difficult to find’. 81 This when he was already past his 44th birthday … 82 ... and this when he was past his 48th. H.K.Foster (left) and Paul Foley (right) were instrumental both in the development of Worcestershire cricket, and in Alfred Green-Price’s rise to the status of a first-class cricketer. The oldest of them all