Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

Acknowledgements My sincere thanks are due to the late Margaret Wearn for telling me so much about her father; Richard and Judy Cockroft for further familial information; Philip Snow for answering so many questions and for writing the foreword; Michael Turner, first for encouraging me to believe that I was capable of writing a biography of a Leicestershire cricketer, and recently for commenting sapiently on the chapter ‘Technique and Style’; Richard Holdridge for supplying information on Lutterworth Grammar School and reading, correcting and supplementing a late draft; Dennis Lambert for coming to my aid when needed; Chris Elston, Peter Pickup and Tony McCarron for information on King’s sojourns in Birkenhead, Eccleshill and Western Province respectively; Adam Sweeting at Lord’s for help with research into the details of King’s minor matches for MCC; Diane Clements of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry for information about King’s career in the craft; and Philip Bailey for his assistance on a variety of statistical points. The staff of the British Library’s newspaper library at Colindale kindly gave me every assistance as I spent two week perusing local newspapers in its keeping. I am grateful to David Smith, Chief Executive of Leicestershire County Cricket Club, for consent to reproduce papers in the club’s possession. David Jeater has been an ideal editor, correcting errors, unearthing supplementary information and tolerating my many caprices. For photographs, I am indebted to the archivists at Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Sylvia Michael and Richard Holdridge; Adam Goodwin for having the county scorebooks scanned at the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office; the late Margaret Wearn for loans and gifts; Richard Cockroft for taking photographs at my request; Roger Mann for contributing photographs from his own collection; and Allan Noon for photographing other items. The photographs of Lutterworth church and the grave are my own. Of the items illustrated King’s bat, silk scorecard and billiards trophy are in the Cockrofts’ possession, his waist-coat buttons, the congratulatory telegram sent to him and his letter to S.C.Packer in mine. 129