Astill Ewart Image 4 Leicestershire 1921

Description

Ratby, Leicestershire born Ewart Astill was, along with George Geary, the mainstay of the Leicestershire team from 1922 to about 1935. He played in nine Test matches for England but was never picked for a home Test or for an Ashes tour. However, for the best part of three decades he was a vital member of a generally struggling Leicestershire team.

Astill began his career at the age of 18 in 1906. He played only one match that season, but his medium paced right-arm bowling on the treacherous pitches of the 1907 season was so difficult that he took 74 wickets in County cricket at 16.58 a piece. The following year, Astill was Leicestershire’s chief bowler with 84 wickets. His thirteen for 61 against Derbyshire on a treacherous pitch was a result he was never able to beat in the rest of his career. He again did well in 1909, but struggled in 1910 and 1911 and was dropped from his team. In the wet summer of 1912, Astill regained his place but was expensive considering the favourable conditions, and on the firmer wickets of 1913 he could not retain his place. In 1914, he played only five matches before cricket was suspended due to the onset of the First World War.

During the War, Astill gained a commission in the Machine Gun Corps and played only three times in 1919 because he was late to be demobilised as he was serving overseas. Astill started his career low in the batting order but emerged after the War batting at number four or five. His maiden century was against newly promoted Glamorgan at Swansea in 1921. He completed the double of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs in each season from 1921 to 1926, and again from 1928 to 1930. He took over 150 wickets in 1921 and 144 in 1922, and his bowling, even if his action was not as high as in the 1900’s, was always steady and occasionally deadly. Only in 1927 did he fail to take 100 wickets, but that season Astill made his highest first class score of 164, again against Glamorgan. In all he took 100 wickets in nine seasons and passed a thousand runs in eleven.

Astill, was never seriously in the running for a tour to Australia, but toured the West Indies with private parties during the middle 1920’s, and played in five Tests in South Africa in 1927-28, making his Test debut at Johannesburg over Christmas 1927, and four against the West Indies in 1929-1930, although he was not effective in those matches. In 1926-27 he was a member of the party that toured India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma with the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.), playing 24 matches and taking 71 wickets. In his Test career he scored 190 runs at an average of 12.66 with a highest score of 40. He took 25 wickets at 34.24 a piece with a best of 4-58 against The West Indies at Port of Spain in February 1930.

Off the field, Astill was a hugely popular figure and although his form declined from 1933 onwards, when he had been a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, with no amateur able to play frequently for the County,  he became the first officially appointed professional captain of any County for over fifty years in 1935. The County enjoyed a useful season, but at 47 years of age, Astill was only a stop gap before an amateur of the required standard and availability could be found. Although Astill retired at the end of 1937, Leicestershire was short of effective players and he was forced to come out of retirement twice in 1938 and in 1939.

In 733 first class matches, Astill scored 15 centuries and 107 half centuries, with a career batting average of 22.55. He took 2,432 wickets at 23.46 a piece, with 22 ten wicket matches and 140 five wicket innings. His best bowling performance was 9-41 and he took 466 catches in his first class career.

He was a nephew of Leicestershire fast bowler Thomas Jayes.