Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

Foreword by Philip Snow, OBE It is timely that, in the present era dominated vulgarly by the money-getting mania encapsulated in simplistic and stultifying slog-and-scamper spectacles, utterly valueless in history, this erudite and knowledgeable work has appeared. Illustrating graphically the elegant technique of an accomplished exponent, both before the 1914-18 War and for seven years after, this study with its fine research adds to both knowledge and nostalgia. Without, I hope, discounting too much its pleasing flavour, I can only add a few tangential reminiscences. At the age of six I was taken by my elder brothers, Harold, Charles and Eric – through whom I was to meet J.H.King’s daughter, Margaret Wearn, and grand-daughter, Judy Cockroft, both of them with the family’s striking looks – to see in 1921 Leicestershire versus the strongest-ever Australians, matched by Bradman’s 1948 team. I still have vivid memories of the day, probably because of the animated discussion there was around the crowded popular stand on the Aylestone Road ground about the differing and deadly styles of J.M.Gregory, with his leaps and bounds and slings, so well caricatured in The Cricketer as a demented kangaroo, and E.A.McDonald, with greater speed and the most graceful, smoothest of actions like Larwood’s. I cannot recall any other player seen, although one would have been King. The queue to enter the ground had seemed interminable, as did the series of clanking, special trams to disgorge impatient spectators-to-be before branching off to line up for the day a dozen deep alongside a Cattle Market pasture. Yes, I would have seen King on the field – perhaps no longer in his prime – but I saw him without seeing him. The reason? I was still dazzled by Gregory and McDonald. King, going in at No.3, was second out with 29, the second highest score of the innings. That was at the very beginning of the three-day match, which lasted only two days, and I had been there with the crowd, pushing in from the start. King did not bowl and was absent hurt for the second innings. 6