Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

second-class match against Cambridgeshire in the last year of the nineteenth century. Wisden’s valediction concludes with the summation: ‘The most efficient left-handed batsmen ever to play for Leicestershire, and a slow left-arm bowler capable of dismissing any side cheaply on a damaged pitch, King leaves a vacancy very hard to fill’. The last few words hardly apply to his bowling, since he took no wickets in his 20 overs this year, only three for 161 runs the previous year and a mere 45 combined in 1922 and 1923, but his Championship batting average, though seemingly poor at 23.26, yet put him third for the county behind Astill and C.H.Taylor, of whom the latter played but 13 innings. It would have been interesting to hear the discussion at the Leicestershire committee’s meeting at the conclusion of the season: how was the decision reached to award him the precise sum of £7 4s 0d out of the £150 available as ‘talent money’? Nestor 111