Colin Blythe

Blythe spent the 1898 season at Tonbridge, almost certainly the first time he had received formal cricket coaching.[28] The regime for the nursery professionals consisted of net practice each morning, followed by further practice in the afternoon early in the season or, in later months, bowling at club members who requested it. The players also gained match practice by playing for local clubs which were able to request their service, and Blythe quickly developed the key cricketing skills, such as line-and-length bowling and variations in the flight and spin of the ball, he would use with great success throughout his career.[25] By 1899, he was playing regularly for local clubs, bowling more than 600 overs and taking 105 wickets during the season, comfortably ahead of the other nursery bowlers.[29] His batting, a skill which McCanlis recalled he had "no idea whatever" about when he began at the nursery,[20] also developed.[29]

Towards the end of August 1899, Blythe, then aged 20, was called into the Kent side and made his first-class debut against Yorkshire on 21 August 1899 at the Angel Ground in Tonbridge. Kent, enduring a poor season and whose bowlers had not performed effectively, began well and took early wickets.[30] Yorkshire began to recover and Blythe was given the ball for the first time with the score 86 for the loss of four wickets. With his first delivery in first-class cricket, he bowled Frank Mitchell, who had scored 55 runs.[lower-alpha 7][6][32] Blythe played the remaining three games of the season, taking a further 12 wickets to finish with 14 at a bowling average of 22.14 runs per wicket.[33] His best performance came against Surrey, when he took three wickets in each innings,[34] after which The Times wrote that "Blythe, the new Kent left-hand slow bowler, seems a very promising man".[35] Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, in its review of the 1899 Kent season, described him as a "new and promising" bowler, although "he has not yet done enough to justify one predicting a great future for him",[36] whilst The Times, in its review, considered that he was a "bowler of great promise".[27]

In 1900, Blythe played in all of Kent's 22 matches, taking 114 wickets and leading the Kent bowling averages as the county finished third in the 1900 County Championship, their best position in ten years.[34][37][38] In his second match of the season, he had first innings figures of five for 71[lower-alpha 8] against Gloucestershire, the first time he took five wickets in an innings. Further five-wicket returns followed against Middlesex and Yorkshire, and by early August he had taken 56 wickets in 14 games at an average of just over 22 runs per wicket.[39] In the first match of Canterbury Cricket Week, when Kent played Lancashire, Blythe took eleven wickets for 72 runs in the match in helpful bowling conditions, including six for 40 in the first innings, his best bowling figures to date. Although the match was drawn, the crowd cheered Blythe and held a collection for him in appreciation of his performance; both the local and national press also praised his bowling in the game,[40] The Times writing that he had "bowled superbly".[41] The rest of the season brought a string of successes: in the last eight games, he took 58 wickets at an average of 14.50 and finished the season with 11 five-wicket returns and two 10-wicket matches, including twelve wickets in the game against Worcestershire.[40]

Blythe benefited from Kent's recently instituted winter pay for their professionals; the scheme had begun in 1897, following a similar model to that used by Yorkshire, but the 20 shillings-a-week payment was not enough to live on and Blythe returned to work at the Woolwich Arsenal and to live in his family's home for the winter months.[42] He was ill for part of the winter and was ordered by Kent to spend two weeks recuperating by the sea.[43][44] Although it is uncertain what the nature of the illness was, one of his biographers, Christopher Scoble, speculates that it may have been related to his later epilepsy, or that he was affected by the attention brought about by his successful first full season.[43]

The weather during the 1901 season was dry, leading to a succession of hard pitches which made batting easy and did not play to Blythe's bowling strengths.[45] In these conditions, he was less effective and took fewer wickets at a higher average: in first-class cricket he secured 93 wickets at 23.12, the only full-season in which he played when he did not take at least 100 first-class wickets.[46][47][48] When conditions favoured his bowling, however, he had success, for example taking seven for 64 against Surrey, and even on good batting pitches Blythe made it difficult for batsmen to score quickly and generally conceded few runs. He remained a nominal member of the Tonbridge Nursery, and played a handful of matches there during the season.[46]

The Sydney Cricket Ground on the second day of Blythe's debut Test match, 14 December 1901.

The good impression that Blythe had made during his first two seasons led to his selection for an English team to tour Australia organised by Archie MacLaren.[lower-alpha 9] Two of the leading English professional bowlers, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst, were refused permission to join the tour by their county, Yorkshire, so MacLaren chose Blythe and several other promising cricketers.[52][53] Kent allowed Blythe to join the tour but withheld his winter pay. Scoble suggests that he enjoyed the tour and "took part fully in the social aspects",[54] including playing his violin with the ship's band during the voyage to Australia.[55] In his first game of the tour, he took five for 45 against South Australia, and when he made his Test match debut on 13 December 1901, he took three for 26 in the first innings and four for 30 in the second,[54][56] The Times reporting that he "bowled splendidly".[57] After his performance, in what was to be the only England Test victory of the tour, Blythe was presented with a gold pocket watch engraved with his bowling figures.[54][58]

Blythe took four for 64 in the first innings of the second Test, but after this his performances fell away and he took only six wickets in the last three Tests, hampered after splitting a finger on his left hand. He generally conceded few runs, but Australian pitches did not favour his bowling style, and the injury to his bowling hand meant he could not turn the ball as much as usual.[59] Wisden suggested that Blythe worked hard, albeit in a weak bowling attack,[60] and his 18 Test match wickets were taken at an average of 26.11.[61] His health benefitted from the tour, and he returned physically stronger than before.[62]

No longer required to train before the season at the Tonbridge Nursery, Blythe was successful in the 1902 season, when he was assisted by a wet summer which led to a series of damp, rain-affected pitches.[63][64] He took 127 wickets at 15.47, including his best figures so far, eight for 42 against Somerset,[63] and finished second in the Kent bowling averages.[65] Although he was not chosen to play for England against the touring Australians,[64] The Times wrote that his performance during the season was "far in advance of anything he has previously done for the county".[66]

Blythe photographed in about 1905

Another wet season in 1903 aided Blythe's bowling and he took 142 first-class wickets at an average of 13.75, his best return in terms of wickets and average so far.[67][68][69] He was the "mainstay" of Kent's bowling attack and by the end of the season, The Times was proclaiming him as "certainly one of the best slow medium left-handers at the present day".[70] Kent began the season badly and only rallied in August, when Blythe took over 70 wickets. Beginning with nine for 67 in an innings against Essex in Canterbury week at the start of August―the first of six times he took nine wickets in an innings―Blythe had a string of successful performances, including taking five for 13 from just 4.3 overs[lower-alpha 10] against Surrey as part of a spell in which he took 25 wickets in four innings spread across four days.[72] Kent finished eighth in the Championship, with Blythe taking a wicket in every match he played in, the beginning of a remarkable sequence in which he took at least one wicket in each match he played in until August 1909.[73] The domestic season was followed by Kent's short tour of the United States, Blythe taking ten wickets in the two first-class matches played in America.[lower-alpha 11][73] In the 1904 edition of the almanack, Wisden chose Blythe as one of the Cricketers of the Year for the 1903 season,[67] its review of the season having said that "nothing stood out as prominently as the bowling of Blythe".[75]

A drier summer in 1904 resulted in fewer pitches which favoured Blythe's bowling, and his 138 wickets came at the higher average of 19.60. He showed again that he could perform on harder pitches and slow the run-scoring of batsmen when necessary, bowling for an hour against Sussex at Tunbridge Wells in a high-scoring match without conceding a run.[73][76] His wickets generally came steadily, although against Hampshire he took thirteen wickets for 91 in June[77] and then fifteen for 76 in a single day's play on a wet pitch at Canterbury in August, including nine for 30 in the first innings.[73][78] He also began to show more potential as a batsman: against Nottinghamshire, he scored 82 not out, sharing a partnership of 106 for the ninth wicket with Bill Fairservice; batting at number four against Yorkshire he scored 42 not out; and against Somerset he scored 70 in an hour out of a last-wicket partnership of 98 with Fairservice. In total, he scored 400 first-class runs, improving by nearly 150 runs on his previous best, and his batting average reached 15.38, the only time he averaged more than 15 in an English season.[79] More than one critic claimed that Blythe could have become a good batsman had he so wished, but he never batted as consistently again, and preferred hard-hitting in the lower order to serious batting.[79] At the end of the season he was the subject of one of the prestigious front-page profiles in Cricket magazine,[80][81] and The Times wrote that Blythe had "strong claims to be considered the best left-hander of his pace".[82]

The following season, Blythe had his most successful season to date, taking 149 wickets at 21.08 as Kent finished sixth in the County Championship in 1905―he took 68 more wickets than any of Kent's other bowlers.[83] He had another success with the bat, scoring 75 and sharing a ninth wicket partnership of 120 with Fairservice, and had several successful games with the ball,[83][84] taking 10 wickets in a match five times.[85] That season, the Australian cricket team toured England, playing five Test matches.[86] Wilfred Rhodes, the established England left-arm spin bowler, missed the third Test with a finger injury, and Blythe, in the opinion of The Times "very likely a better bowler",[87] replaced him to make his only Test appearance of the season and his first on home soil.[83] He took four wickets, including three quick wickets in the Australian second innings which nearly tilted the match, which was drawn, in England's favour.[83][88] Wisden commented that he "got on admirably" and "bowled uncommonly well",[89] although Rhodes returned to the side for the final two matches.[90]

Blythe was selected by the MCC to tour South Africa over the 1905–06 English winter.[lower-alpha 12] The English team was not particularly strong and featured only three players, including Blythe, who had played against Australia the previous season,[93][94] although Wisden was of the view it was "good enough" for the task, albeit short of a fast bowler.[95] In contrast to his previous tour, Blythe requested that Kent continue his winter pay, suggesting that he would not go otherwise. The Kent committee only agreed after a majority vote, although the influential committee chairman Lord Harris supported Blythe.[96] In South Africa, Blythe was successful, taking over 100 wickets in all games, including 57 in first-class matches, and thrived on the matting pitches used at the time in the country.[lower-alpha 13][85][97] He was one of the few English bowling successes in the Test matches,[95] playing in all five matches and taking 21 wickets at 26.09.[98] South Africa won the series 4–1; in the only Test won by England, Blythe took eleven for 118, including his first five-wicket returns in Test matches: six for 68 and five for 50.[97]

Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury, by Albert Chevallier Tayler. The painting shows Blythe as the bowler.

After finishing third in 1904 and in sixth-place in 1905, Kent won the County Championship for the first time in 1906.[99] Blythe took 111 first-class wickets at 19.90 in the season, but was hampered by injury which prevented him reaching 100 wickets in the Championship for the first time since 1901 and the last time in his career.[98][100] Against Sussex, he split the second finger of his bowling hand and missed three games; attempting to return too soon, he split the finger again and missed four more matches. During the time he was not playing, he received half-pay, and his place was taken by a 19-year-old debutant, Frank Woolley, who became one of Kent's greatest players.[lower-alpha 14][103] He returned for the final eleven Championship matches of the season, all of which Kent won to clinch the title in a tight finish.[104][105] Against Surrey at Blackheath, considered the turning point of Kent's season, he "won the game for Kent with some brilliant bowling on an easy batting wicket"[106]―taking five for 25 from 20 overs as Surrey were bowled out for 80 in their second innings[107]―and the team went in to the final Championship match of the season against Hampshire needing only a draw to secure the title; Blythe took six wickets in each innings and Kent, who scored 610 runs when they batted, won by an innings.[105][108][109]

Following their victory, the team were widely acclaimed, particularly within Kent, and the Kent Committee chose to award the professionals a bonus of £10, rather less than a week's wage for Blythe.[110] At the suggestion of Lord Harris, the Committee commissioned a painting by Albert Chevallier Tayler of one of the season's matches. The main conditions were that it should be set on St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, and should include Blythe as the bowler; the painting, Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury, became well-known and has been hung in the pavilions at Canterbury and at Lord's Cricket Ground.[lower-alpha 15][21][113]

In the 1907 County Championship match at the County Cricket Ground, Northampton, Kent defeated Northamptonshire by an innings and 155 runs. Kent had batted first, having won the toss, and had then dismissed Northants for 60 and 39.[114] The story of the match is that it was dominated by, first, the weather and then by Blythe. The first day was Thursday, 28 May, Blythe's 28th birthday. Play could not commence until mid-afternoon and then three hours were possible before more rain intervened. Kent won the toss, batted first and reached 212 for 4. On the Friday, no play was possible because of persistent rain. The weather relented on Saturday morning and Kent were able to continue their innings. Their tactics were simply to score as many as possible as quickly as possible and they added 42 in forty minutes to reach an all out 254 with more than an hour to go before lunch. On a wet but drying wicket, Blythe was in his element. He opened the bowling from the pavilion end and, in sixteen overs, shattered Northants with a career-best return of 10 for 30. Northants had to follow-on but, with Blythe taking seven for 18, their second innings lasted only thirty overs, so Blythe had taken 17 wickets in a single day's play.[115][116] Frank Woolley was playing and he recalled in his memoir that Blythe was unlucky not to take all twenty wickets in the match (this has never been done in first-class cricket). He says Blythe was affected by dropping an absolute "sitter" off his own bowling but that was in the first innings, not the second. The first wicket in the second innings was taken by Bill Fairservice so the all-twenty goal was never on once that wicket fell.[117]

Blythe's best Test bowling performance was eight for 59 (fifteen for 99 in the match) against South Africa at Headingley in the 2nd Test of the 1907 series.[116]

Kent were unable to retain their championship title and slipped to eighth place in the 1907 final table, having won twelve of their 26 matches.[118] Blythe had one of his best seasons individually, especially his performances at Northampton and Headingley. He took 183 wickets, the same as George Hirst, and only George Dennett with 201 took more. Blythe's average improved to 15.42 and placed him fifth among the bowlers with 100 wickets. His ten for 30 at Northampton was his best innings return. He achieved 5wI seventeen times and 10wM six times.[119]

Blythe made his second tour Australia, this time with MCC, in 1907–08. He played in eleven first-class matches and took 41 wickets at 22.80 with a best return of six for 48. He achieved 5wI three times and 10wM once.[120]

Kent had a very good season in 1908 and were placed second behind Yorkshire, who were unbeaten in 28 matches. The crucial match was Kent's season opener at Bradford Park Avenue where Yorkshire won by nine wickets. Only 249 runs were scored in the entire game.[121] Kent also lost to Hampshire and Surrey in August.[122] Blythe had an outstanding season and, for the first time, was the country's leading wicket-taker, his 197 putting him well clear of George Hirst (174). Blythe's average was 16.88 (seventh among bowlers with 100 wickets); his best innings return was eight for 83; he achieved 5wI twenty times and 10wM six times.[123]

Having performed with great credit in 1908, Kent won the 1909 title in fine style, losing only two of their 26 matches.[124] Blythe took 215 wickets, 48 wickets more than anyone else, and he was again the national leader. His average of 14.54 was second among bowlers with 100 wickets, behind Schofield Haigh's 13.95. Blythe's best innings return was nine for 42. He achieved 5wI 23 times and 10wM seven times.[125]

After the start of World War I in early August 1914, cricket continued to be played, although public interest declined and the social side of the game was curtailed.[136] Blythe took ten wickets against Sussex and eight against Northants during Canterbury Week at the beginning of the month. Dover week was moved to Canterbury as The Crabble was being converted to a military camp, and in his final game on the ground Blythe took eleven wickets against Worcestershire, including seven for 20 on a drying pitch to win the match for Kent.[lower-alpha 16][139] In his final match of the season, played at Lord's, he took another seven wickets, including five for 77 in the first innings, his 218th five-wicket haul. At 35 years of age, Blythe finished the season as the leading county wicket-taker with 170, but did not play in Kent's final match of the season at Bournemouth; war had intervened.[140][141][142]

Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1914–1917
Rank	Serjeant
Unit	2/7 Kent Fortress Royal Engineers 12 Pioneer Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Battles/wars	First World War Second Battle of Passchendaele

The memorial to Blythe at the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury in 2019

Despite his epilepsy, Blythe enlisted in the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers (KFRE) at the end of August alongside Kent teammates David Jennings and Henry Preston as well as his close friend Claud Woolley[lower-alpha 17] and Jennings' brother Tom.[lower-alpha 18][148][149][150] As a trained engineer, Blythe's skills lent themselves to service in the KFRE, and after initial training at Tonbridge, the men were posted to the Gillingham depot as part of 2/7 company, a Territorial Force company.[lower-alpha 19][151] Blythe's enlistment was covered by the press and whilst at Tonbridge he undertook a recruiting tour of Kent, enlisting another 25 men.[lower-alpha 20][152] He was promoted to corporal by the end of the year and to serjeant in 1915.[151]

After spending the first years of the war working on coastal defences and other construction projects around Kent, the introduction of conscription in January 1916 meant that territorials were required to sign Imperial Service Obligations and were liable to be sent overseas.[153] Wartime cricket matches, firstly for the KFRE and later for other sides, occupied some of Blythe's time. The side played matches against the Royal Engineers, a South African XI and Chatham Garrison amongst others in 1916, and Blythe played at Lord's and The Oval and against a Linden Park side containing four of Kent's players.[154][155]

Blythe and Claud Woolley were identified for overseas service in early 1917, were transferred to the Royal Engineers and underwent training at Marlow in Buckinghamshire.[156] Blythe played more cricket whilst at Marlow, playing alongside Woolley and Jennings. His final appearances at Lord's saw him playing against the Australian Imperial Forces and then, in his final match, for an Army and Navy side against an Australian and South African XI. He took only one wicket, Australian international Charlie Macartney.[157][158] By this time Blythe was certain that he would not be able to play cricket professionally after the war, and was appointed as cricket coach at Eton College, intending to take up the position once the war was over.[lower-alpha 21][142][156][162]

Blythe was posted to the 12th battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI), a pioneer battalion which had been raised in Leeds and consisted mostly of Yorkshire miners. He embarked for France in September.[156][163] Working in the Ypres Salient sector of the front, the battalion was mainly engaged in laying and maintaining light railway lines to allow easy passage of men, equipment and munitions across the area during the Battle of Passchendaele.[156] On 8 November 1917 Blythe and Woolley were part of a working party on a railway line between Wieltje and Gravenstafel.[lower-alpha 22] Shrapnel from a shell burst pierced Blythe's chest, killing him instantly; the same burst wounded Woolley.[142][156][165]

The corrected inscription on the memorial in 2019

Blythe is buried in the Oxford Road Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery near Ypres.[166] His headstone bears the inscription, chosen by his wife, "In loving memory of my dear husband, the Kent & England cricketer".[167] A memorial to him and the other members of Kent's sides who died during the war was erected at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury in 1919. The idea of a memorial was discussed by the Kent Committee as early as December 1917, subject to approval by his widow, and noted in The Times in April 1918.[141] The memorial, which initially took the form of a drinking fountain, was unveiled by Lord George Hamilton in August 1919.[168][169][170] Inscribed in block letters on the west face of the plinth was the dedication: "To the memory of Colin Blythe of the Kent Eleven who volunteered for active service upon the outbreak of hostilities in the Great War of 1914–18 and was killed at Ypres on the 18th Nov 1917. Aged 38 he was unsurpassed among the famous bowlers of the period and beloved by his fellow cricketers".[171] The date was wrong: Blythe was killed on the 8th.[172]

The memorial was originally sited on the Old Dover Road side of the ground, just inside the main entrance and next to a memorial to Fuller Pilch. It was removed from its initial site during redevelopment of the ground in the early 21st century and restored. It was rededicated, with a corrected inscription, inside the Nackington Road entrance of the ground in 2017 on the centenary of Blythe's death.[169] Pelham Warner, who had played with Blythe for England and was a great admirer of his, laid a wreath at the memorial during the 1919 Canterbury Cricket Week, beginning a tradition which has continued.[173]

Blythe is also commemorated by a decorative mural in Tonbridge Parish Church, on the town's war memorial and has a road in North Tonbridge named after him.[170][174][175] Both the Tonbridge mural and the Canterbury memorial were designed by Walter Cave, the vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.[176] Two of Blythe's wallets, torn by the shrapnel which killed him, are on display inside the pavilion at Canterbury.[21][142]