Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

J.H.King Leicestershire’s Longaevous Left-Hander A.R.LITTLEWOOD LIVES IN CRICKET ACS PUBLICATIONS £12.00 ‘Longaevous’, dictionaries say, is an adjective, now rare, meaning ‘long-lived’ or ‘living or having lived to as great age’. John Herbert King achieved, as a cricketer, both longevity and rarity. As a first-class player, his career spanned thirty years from June 1895 to August 1925. In the latter year he played nineteen games at the age of 54: only one other player has played regularly in championship cricket at a greater age. He went on to umpire in first-class matches until 1936, and ‘stood’ in war-time county games as late as 1945. Cricket professionals of his time were typically from working class homes. King’s background was ‘comfortably middle class’: his father was a successful builder who sent his sons to boarding school. King dealt with the powerful men of the Leicestershire hierarchy without deference, as Antony Littlewood’s story shows. An all-rounder, he batted and bowled left-handed and famously scored a century in each innings for the Players at Lord’s in 1904, but was called up for only one Test match. Only three other left- handers have scored ten thousand runs and taken a thousand wickets in Championship cricket. Like many others, he was a county ‘workhorse’. This is a tale where rarity and commonplace mix.