Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

The Lutterworth Cricket Club has a long and honourable history. It may have come into existence only two years after the Marylebone Cricket Club, for there is record of a match between Lutterworth and neighbouring Ullesthorpe on 23 May 1789. Certainly it was in existence a few years later and in the middle and late nineteenth century was one of the most powerful in the county. King may have received hints here from the Rev Edward Elmhirst, rector of nearby Shawell, in whose garden Tennyson wrote parts of his In Memoriam – the rector had married a ward of the poet’s father. For many years Elmhirst loyally supported the Lutterworth club, having a pavilion erected and surrounding seats provided, and coaching the players. By King’s time, though, his contributions were probably limited in extent since he was 82 when he died in 1893. A batsman and wicket-keeper, his cricketing credentials were considerable, for in his prime he had been one of the most prominent players for the county club. Further afield he had represented Cambridge University in 1834, when there was no University match; the North; the Gentlemen, for whom as opening batsman in the winning match against the Players at Lord’s in 1848 he was the only player on his side to reach double figures; and MCC. Between 1834 and 1853, he played in fifteen matches now recognized as first-class. It was said of Elmhirst that he would have been an archbishop if his preaching had been as good as his cricket. Of more importance to King there were, still playing for the club or closely following its fortunes in retirement, three notable players. R.W.Gillespie-Stainton of Bitteswell Hall, just outside Lutterworth, had been in the Harrow XI of 1861 and a regular player for Leicestershire in the 1880s: he became a committee member of the county club when it was reformed in 1879. The Rev William Townshend had been in the Rossall XI, was an Oxford Blue (he had played in sixteen first-class matches for the University, including ‘Cobden’s Match’ in 1870), had played for MCC and was only the second cricketer, after William Lambert, known to have scored two centuries in a match (for Rossall against the Old Boys in 1867). He had played for Leicestershire from 1881 to 1885 during his long rectorship of Thurlaston. Charles Marriott of Cotesbach Hall, two miles south of Lutterworth, the first member of his family to be a lay squire, was a J.P. and had been High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1878. As a cricketer he was a Wykehamist and Oxford Blue who had played also for the Gentlemen of England, MCC (on whose committee he served several terms) and I Zingari, appearing in 31 Early Days 16