Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

openers and three of the next six batsmen to finish with five for 58 and give his side a lead of 64. Before his woes began he had been largely responsible for a win by MCC against Nottinghamshire, being equal top scorer with 37, and taking four for 26 to finish off an easy victory in a substantially rain-damaged match. At the wrong time of the season for him, he was also selected in ‘a very powerful side to meet the Australians’ ( Wisden ), in which he batted as low as No.8, but most of the game was lost to rain. The final Championship match of the season, against Surrey at The Oval, was the last in which elder brother James appeared for his county. He never made the grade, scoring but 83 runs at 10.38 with a highest score of 24 not out and taking two wickets for 146 runs in seven matches spread over the years 1899 to 1905; although he did end his career with a defiant and unbeaten 18 after his brother had top-scored with 57. His most important contribution to the county side was probably the original scoring system that he instituted in the nets. In addition to an engagement with Sefton Park, he was a stalwart member of the Leicester Town Club (known at its foundation in 1866 as the Victoria Park club and from 1878 as the Leicester Cricket Club). For 36 years he was the much-loved licensee of the Avenue Hotel on Cavendish Road in Aylestone Park not far from the Grace Road ground, and he assisted his successor for about ten years thereafter. Although he appeared ‘solemn’ to the youthful Philip Snow, his niece always remembered his unfailing cheerfulness and kindness: ‘He was a lovely person. Despite a terrible life he was never downcast [and] was very fond of poets, particularly Burns and Byron. [He] used to walk at night with terriers Vicky and Tinker and a tabby tom-cat.’ On one occasion he made his way to Knighton and ‘stood under the bridge’ for better acoustics as he recited from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. When he reached the words ‘There was a sound of revelry by night’ (3.21.1), he was disturbed by the applause of a policeman who had tarried to listen. He died nearly sixteen months after his brother, and they are buried together. 1906 was a most disappointing season, one critic opining that Leicestershire was ‘a litter of pink-eyed rabbits, and if animals of that breed walk up to be shot, the phrase is an apt one’. The county finished fifteenth, albeit with three victories, a result generally of poor team spirit and the inability of bowlers to bowl well on good wickets. King, though obtaining over 1,000 runs, managed to reach Successes and Disappointments 63