A profile of Colin Blythe

A profile of Colin Blythe by Dave Liverman

Player:

A great slow left arm bowler, possessing a classical delivery and looping flight, his action was elegant and smooth, a few strides leading into a perfect upright sideways-on delivery. He pitched the ball up to encourage the drive into a strong off side field, and with sufficient spin to trap any batsman unwise enough to try and hit against it. He varied pace well, and was deceptive through the air, with more pace than most batsmen realised until too late. On the uncovered wickets of pre World War 1, he was close to unplayable after rain, or when the pitch started to crumble. He relished the challenge of bowling to hard-hitting batsman, bringing to his art the virtue of considerable imagination - he seemed always to have something more up his sleeve.

He made his debut for Kent when 20 years old, and took over 100 wickets in his second season. He bowled little the following year, due to illness, but from 1902 to his final season in 1914 he took more than 100 wickets every year. His best year was 1909, when he took 215 wickets. In 1907 he took more wickets in a day than anyone else in first-class cricket history, following 10-30 (including 7 wickets for 1 run in 36 balls) with 7-18 against Northamptonshire. He toured Australia and South Africa twice, and America once, but in general found bowling overseas less to his taste than in English conditions. His 2,509 first-class wickets were taken at an average of 16.8.

He was a fine violinist, and his artistic temperament , as well as his epilepsy did not always react well to the stress of Test matches. He died tragically young, killed in action in France, and his memorial stands on the St. Lawrence Ground in Canterbury.
(Article: Copyright © 2000 Dave Liverman)