John King (cricketer, born 1871)

King first played for Leicestershire without success – just seventeen runs in eight innings and no wicket – in their initial County Championship season of 1895. He did not play at all in 1896, and only played five games in 1897 for 169 runs and just two wickets for 114 each. In 1898 King appeared to have established himself as a regular player, but duties as a professional in Birkenhead subsequently prevented him playing. ==Established county player==

He disappointed upon returning for the full 1899 season, but in 1900 he improved dramatically. Discarding the cramped, one-stroke style of his early days, King emerged as an attacking left-haded batsman to such effect that he scored 940 runs, whilst at same time his medium-pace left-arm bowling brought him 76 wickets in county matches. was severely lacking in finger spin except under exceedingly helpful conditions. In 1901 King scored over 1,600 runs in first-class cricket, and although his bowling disappointed in the following two cool, wet seasons, he continued to pass four figures with bat. In 1904, King was listed as a reserve for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's, but played due to the absence of Johnny Tyldesley and scored two separate centuries on a fiery pitch, becoming only the second player to do so in that game. However, a thumb injury early in 1905 ruled him out of contention for a Test berth against the Australians, although he did get back to form with the bat when he returned. In 1906 King became the last batsman to have been given out hit the ball twice in a first-class game in England, when in the match against Surrey at the Oval he stopped the ball from running onto his stumps by hitting it a second time, and then attempted to run a single. King like his county had a poor season that year, but despite limited opportunities he showed something of his earlier promise with the ball in the wet summer of 1907, averaging under 17 for 40 wickets. ==Playing for England==

In 1909, King did so well early in the season with both bat and ball that he was asked to play for England against Australia at Lord's when Colin Blythe – who had taken eleven wickets at Edgbaston in the first Test – declared himself unavailable due to ill-health and a left-handed bowler was needed in unsettled weather. King was the first Leicestershire cricketer to represent England against Australia at home, sustained in a local game in May. He played just two games and his bowling was severely missed in a wet summer by a team that had lost W. W. Odell to business. Nonetheless, on a particularly vicious "sticky" against Yorkshire he helped Leicestershire to their only victory with a remarkable performance of seven wickets for no run in twenty balls as the northern county were bowled out for 47 and lost by an innings and twenty runs. but he batted very well and in 1914 scored 227 against an admittedly bad Worcestershire bowling attack. ==Postwar veteran==

King remained a mainstay of Leicestershire cricket when county matches resumed in 1919. He took 100 wickets in county matches in 1920, but after that his bowling declined. However, despite passing fifty in 1921, King would score a thousand runs each season from 1921 to 1923, in which season he was granted a second benefit against Derbyshire and scored his second career double century with 205 against Hampshire, where he achieved a remarkable feat of endurance for a man of fifty-two by batting throughout the second day. At the time the oldest man playing regularly in county cricket, King would decline with both bat and ball in the wet summer of 1924 and finally drop out of the team at fifty-four in 1925. ==Post-playing==

After retiring as a player, King continued his involvement in the game as an umpire for another eleven seasons. ==Notes==