Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

batsmen since the seven listed in Appendix One whom he dismissed ten or more times amassed 454 centuries between them in scoring 211,518 runs at a combined average of 35.87. But King was in addition a finger-spinner getting, especially on sticky wickets, turn to the off against the right-hander, although, he did not, as Fry avers, obtain the sharp spin of a Rhodes or a Blythe. Jack Brown once said that ‘with more finger-spin he would be the greatest left-hander living’. Even when, however, he merely straightened the ball rather than moved it away from the batsman, such a ball was still sufficient to hit the wickets, obtain an lbw decision or bring about a snick into the slips. The left-hander had to guard against being clean bowled, being out lbw or getting an inside edge onto the stumps or into the wicket-keeper’s hands. 30.1% of his victims were bowled, 9.1% lbw and 7.2% caught by the wicket-keeper. 20 On wickets that suited him however, his spin, pace Fry, was by no means negligible, a South African newspaper, for instance, commenting that he ‘breaks tremendously from the off’ (presumably to a left-hander). One considerable advantage he had over many bowlers was his ability to be effective, at times even deadly, on slow wickets. Although he may have done so on occasion to left-handers, I have not come across evidence that even when spinning the ball considerably on a favourable pitch he varied his direction from round to over the wicket. On this point the analytical Fry observes: ‘It has often been pointed out that a bowler like Rhodes if he bowled over instead of round the wickets would obtain a sharper angle of break away from the batsman. So he would, but he would be easier to play, because the contrast between the line of the ball in the air and the direction of the break would be sacrificed.’ A prominent weapon in King’s armoury as a bowler was his ability, even under punishment, to keep accurate line and especially length, the great virtues of that most economical of bowlers, Alfred Shaw. He was, therefore, fairly economical over his career, conceding an average of 43.19 runs per 100 balls, or 2.59 runs per six-ball over. Apart from the 103 five-ball overs he bowled in his first two seasons and 46 six-ball overs in his penultimate season, this average was remarkably consistent year after year whatever his average of runs per wicket: even in his very last season, when Technique and Style 42 20 The comparable figures for Gunn are bowled 35.0%, lbw 8.5%, caught by wicket-keeper 9.4%.