Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

decision but had to go’. In the MCC match against the same opponents, he appeared together with the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he had met the year before in the opposition. King himself scored 37 and 53, but C.J.B.Wood, in scoring 176 for London County, showed that he was fully cognisant with all his county colleague’s wiles as a bowler. The weather in 1903 was bad with ‘Scotch mists’ and ‘continuous downpour’. Even on one of the better days in May the local newspaper pronounced: ‘As in the olden days when there was much rejoicing at the return of the prodigal one, there was much pleasure in the hearts of cricketers when it was discovered that the clerk of the weather had come, in some degree, to a proper sense of his May duties. Old Sol’s winter sleep, behind leaden clouds, which seemed to hold an unlimited supply of rain, appeared, however, to have done very little good in the way of giving him strength.’ King retained his importance to Leicestershire in 1903, being second among both the batsmen and the regular bowlers (to Knight and Gill respectively) with his batting average again being the higher, albeit by under three runs. His failure to obtain 50 Championship wickets on pitches often unfavourable to batting – only occasionally was he entrusted this season with the new ball – From Journeyman to Master 51 The Leicestershire side of 1903, at the back of the Aylestone Road pavilion. Standlng (l to r): T.Emmett (coach), James King (J.H.’s brother), A.E.Knight, H.Whitehead, J.H.King, G.C.Gill and T.Burdett (Honorary Secretary). Seated: F.W.Stocks, W.W.Odell, V.F.S.Crawford, A.E.Davis (wk) and C.J.B.Wood. Kneeling: T.C.Allsopp and S.Coe. The appointed captain, C.E.de Trafford, is absent.