Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

Leicestershire’s bowling, from 1922 onwards for over a decade, was largely in the hands of Astill and Geary. King, in this first year, found it hard to obtain much bite even on his favourite soft pitches and took a mere but not particularly expensive 22 wickets, his best return being five for 72 at Trent Bridge when he had a surprisingly long spell of 25 overs. In many matches he was not called upon at all to turn over his arm. Notwithstanding, he appeared in all 26 Championship matches as a batsman, had the largest aggregate and scored the highest score of the season for Leicestershire, who finished a disappointing fourteenth. That highest score, 132 at Southampton twenty-one years after his first century on the ground, brought forth an eulogy from the Leicester Mercury’s reporter: ‘The Lutterworth professional, who, during his four and a half hours at the wicket, had occasionally varied his superb defence with flashes of brilliant work on the off-side, and by powerful hitting to the leg, played a really magnificent innings, which once more proved what an extraordinary veteran he is . . . his sustained power after the lapse of so many years entitles him to a unique place amongst present-day cricketers’. His other century came at home against Kent in a high-scoring drawn game. Following his side’s second-highest score of 58 in the first innings he made a ‘masterly’ and chanceless 103 against, among others, the great Frank Woolley and ‘Tich’ Freeman. This was the last time that his century came in his side’s second innings, but his ratio of 15 such centuries to 19 in the first innings is quite unusual, and indicates how often, though not in this particular instance, he was the anchor when the pitch was deteriorating and his side was pressing for victory or attempting to stave off defeat. On several other occasions this year he made Leicestershire’s highest innings, most notably a doughty unbeaten 87 against Lancashire at Leicester in a match that was lost by two runs to a run-out, 79 at Gravesend when the next highest was 26 as Woolley, ‘who was making the ball do weird things’, and Freeman dominated, and 40 when there were only two other scores in double figures but four ducks in the second innings of Astill’s benefit match against Sussex. Although in that innings his legs betrayed him and he was run out, he yet managed, again at Leicester, to reach an exhilarating 51 in only a shade over the hour against Northamptonshire. 1923 was much like 1922 – again King had the highest Championship aggregate (and this time the highest average of 104 Nestor