by Arunabha Sengupta
The greatest cricketer to be killed in the First World War. By some distance.
He had the most beautiful of actions. “The very look on his face, the long, sensitive fingers, the elastic back sweep of his left arm before delivery, the short dancing approach, the long last stride and the final flick of the arm as it came over, all these spoke of a highly sensitive and nervous instrument, beautifully coordinated, directed by a subtle mind, and inspired by a natural love of his art,” wrote Harry Altham.
It is little surprise then that Colin Blythe was also a virtuoso violinist.
Indeed, GD Martineau compared the two arts that he indulged in. “As he trod his measure to the wicket it was as though he stepped to a tune played on his own violin.”
It was not just style. There was plenty of substance in the form of wickets. Blythe was one of the long line of great left-arm spinners that used to be produced like an assembly line by England. Peate, Peel, Rhodes, Verity, Wardle, Underwood … Blythe stands as tall as the greatest of them, if not taller.
His death was tragic at the age of 38. The Great War ensured that he played no more after 35. Indeed, he was 32 when he played his final Test.
Yet, this frail man marked by fate to remain eternally young overcame his fragile constitution, bouts of epileptic fits, and cruelty of chance to capture exactly 100 Test wickets at 18.63 and 2,503 in First-Class cricket at 16.81.
The highlight of his Test career was perhaps the 15 wickets at Headingley, 1907, that earned England victory against the battery of South African googly bowlers after being bowled out for 75. He also earned England’s only victory in the previous tour to South Africa with 11 wickets at Newlands and a gritty 27 as night-watchman — his highest score in Tests.
Another memorable Test was the Birmingham triumph over Australia in 1909 when his 11 wickets and George Hirst’s 9 gave England a 10-wicket win. His final Test was yet another triumph in Newlands with his 10 wickets earning a 9-wicket victory.
His Test record is fantastic: in all Test cricket only Sydney Barnes has taken 100 wickets at a lower average. However, his artistic temperament, and the epileptic fits did not react well to the stress of the highest format of the game. The antidote for seizures prescribed during his times do not fit into the standard treatment of today. He suffered. A lot.
He is more renowned as the greatest Kent bowler, a title that is perhaps still valid even after the deeds of Tich Freeman and Derek Underwood many years down the line.
It was the county scene where his more spectacular feats were recorded. 215 wickets in 1909. 178, 167, 170 in the last three seasons he managed to bowl. 17 in a day against Northamptonshire in 1907—10 for 30, 7 for 18. At one stage he had figures of 6-5-1-7. Kent’s maiden County Championship win in 1906 was largely his doing, immortalised by Albert Chevalier Tayler’s famous painting of his bowling to Johnny Tyldesley at the St Lawrence Ground of Canterbury.
Colin Blythe was born on 30 May 1879.