Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

front-page feature, replete with photograph of him posing as bowler. The county’s great match of the season, and one written up extensively in the newspapers and The Cricketer , was that against the powerful and exciting Australian side, the eagerly awaited opening match of the tour. Crowds packed the ground to witness what proved a one-sided match on an alarmingly fast pitch made seemingly even more fearsome by the contrasting actions of the opening bowlers J.M.Gregory and E.A.McDonald, whose speed challenged the reactions of even young men. Never before and never after did King receive so many plaudits for so few runs as he did in his innings. Batting at No.3, but facing the second ball of the match from Gregory, he was immediately hit ‘a rather severe blow on the chest’ from a short-pitched ball. 39 Though battered and severely bruised all over his body, he never flinched at the onslaught but kept his body in line, played straight and even, with Mounteney, took the fight to the foe, the partnership reaching 50 in under 40 minutes and ultimately 60, when McDonald (eight for 102 Nestor Coachbuilders’ craftsmanship on display in the Aylestone Road car park during the Australian match of 1921. 39 As daughter Margaret remembered, ‘That night when father came home he was bruised right up to here and you could see, and this is no exaggeration, you could see every stitch of the cricket ball, but after being hit he got 33 runs’.