Lives in Cricket No 9 - JH King

Chapter Ten Nestor In comparison with some counties Leicestershire was fortunate in the matter of casualties during the War. Of regular players the only fatality was of that fine medium-paced bowler Billy Odell, who, as a second lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters, was reported missing in the attack to secure Broodseine Ridge, near Passchendaele, in October 1917, having just been awarded the Military Cross ‘for conspicuous gallantry and devotion in taking out a patrol at a critical time and gathering valuable information’; but he would have been well past his prime by 1919. Probably more serious a loss was that of the youngster W.N.Riley, who already had a century against Yorkshire to his name but now had but a single leg. Others, aspirants for county cricket before the War, had now altered their plans for life. So Leicestershire entered its first post-war season with much the same team as had fought its last campaign in 1914. The side was led by Wood, now 43 and captain as he had been before the war; it included Coe, who would turn 46 in June, and King, who was already 48. It is no wonder that Wisden asserted that the county ‘stands in great need of new blood’. Notwithstanding, Leicestershire was to be well served by its elderly servants between the World Wars. King played regularly until he was over 54, Astill played a few games past 51, Coe past 50, Geary regularly past 45 and de Trafford in 1920, after admittedly a break of seven years, played a single game, celebrating with a straight drive for six off V.W.C.Jupp, at the age of 56. And they were usually worth their place: after turning thirty and in spite of losing four years to the War while in his forties King scored 92.51% of his 25,122 runs and took 90.44% of his 1,204 wickets. The corresponding figures are 92.15% of 22,731 and 79.92% of 2,431 for Astill; 85.32% of 13,504 and 80.13% of 2,063 for Geary; and 81.76% of Coe’s 17,367 runs. More strikingly, after turning forty King scored 47.17% of his runs and took 44.85% of his wickets; the corresponding figures being 39.78% and 37.27% for Astill, 25.20% and 21.13% for Geary and 35.95% for Coe’s runs. Even these remarkable figures were to be 95