104 Facts About Colin Blythe

Colin Blythe, known as Charlie Blythe, was an English professional cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team during the early part of the 20th century.

Colin Blythe was a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and is considered to have been one of the great left-arm spin bowlers in cricket history.

Colin Blythe played county cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1899 and 1914 and shares the record for the highest number of first-class wickets taken in a single day's play along with Hedley Verity and Tom Goddard.

Colin Blythe took over 100 wickets in 14 of the 16 seasons he played, including 215 in 1909.

Colin Blythe was born on 30 May 1879 in Deptford, at that time part of Kent.

Colin Blythe's father, Walter, was an engineer fitter and his mother, Elizabeth Dready, was the daughter of a cooper.

The eldest of thirteen children, Colin Blythe was educated at Duke Street School close to his home, leaving in April 1892 just before his thirteenth birthday.

Colin Blythe decided to study for a Whitworth Scholarship, but the pressure proved too much for his health and a doctor recommended that fresh air would aid his recuperation.

Until this point, Colin Blythe appears to have played few, if any, organised cricket matches.

Colin Blythe did so and was seen by William McCanlis, a former Kent cricketer who acted as coach and advisor to the team.

McCanlis described his discovery of Colin Blythe as involving "a considerable amount of luck", Deptford not being an area usually considered when searching for new talent.

Shortly after, Colin Blythe bowled to McCanlis at the latter's local cricket club and impressed him sufficiently that he was recommended for a trial at the Tonbridge Nursery where promising young professional cricketers were trained with a view to joining the Kent team.

Colin Blythe spent the 1898 season at Tonbridge, almost certainly the first time he had received formal cricket coaching.

The players gained match practice by playing for local clubs which were able to request their service, and Colin 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.

Yorkshire began to recover and Colin Blythe was given the ball for the first time with the score 86 for the loss of four wickets.

Colin 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.

In 1900, Colin 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.

Colin 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 Colin Blythe returned to work at the Woolwich Arsenal and to live in his family's home for the winter months.

Colin Blythe was ill for part of the winter and was ordered by Kent to spend two weeks recuperating by the sea.

When conditions favoured his bowling he had success, for example taking seven for 64 against Surrey, and even on good batting pitches Colin Blythe made it difficult for batsmen to score quickly and generally conceded few runs.

Colin Blythe remained a nominal member of the Tonbridge Nursery, and played a handful of matches there during the season.

The good impression that Colin Blythe had made during his first two seasons led to his selection for an English team to tour Australia organised by Archie MacLaren.

Kent allowed Colin Blythe to join the tour but withheld his winter pay.

Colin 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.

Colin Blythe 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.

Wisden suggested that Colin Blythe worked hard, albeit in a weak bowling attack, and his 18 Test match wickets were taken at an average of 26.11.

Colin Blythe's health benefitted from the tour, and he returned physically stronger than before.

Colin Blythe took 127 wickets at 15.47, including his best figures so far, eight for 42 against Somerset, and finished second in the Kent bowling averages.

Colin Blythe 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".

Kent finished eighth in the Championship, with Colin 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.

The domestic season was followed by Kent's short tour of the United States, Colin Blythe taking ten wickets in the two first-class matches played in America.

Colin Blythe 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.

Colin Blythe 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.

Colin Blythe 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, taking 10 wickets in a match five times.

Colin Blythe took four wickets, including three quick wickets in the Australian second innings which nearly tilted the match, which was drawn, in England's favour.

The English team was not particularly strong and featured only three players, including Colin Blythe, who had played against Australia the previous season, although Wisden was of the view it was "good enough" for the task, albeit short of a fast bowler.

In contrast to his previous tour, Colin Blythe requested that Kent continue his winter pay, suggesting that he would not go otherwise.

In South Africa, Colin 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.

Colin Blythe was one of the few English bowling successes in the Test matches, playing in all five matches and taking 21 wickets at 26.09.

Colin 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.

Colin Blythe returned for the final eleven Championship matches of the season, all of which Kent won to clinch the title in a tight finish.

Kent only managed eighth place in the 1907 County Championship, with their batting inconsistent and suffering from missing players, but Colin Blythe had considerable personal success.

Colin Blythe took 141 Championship wickets for Kent, and 183 in total at 15.42.

Colin Blythe had a catch dropped from his bowling before any wickets had fallen, but took wickets steadily to finish with seven for 18.

Colin Blythe played in all three of the summer's Test matches against South Africa.

Colin Blythe took four wickets in the drawn first Test, hampered by an injury to his hand after he dropped a catch, but in the days before the next game, Blythe took 23 wickets in two matches.

The pitch was badly affected by rain and as the only spinner in the England team, Colin Blythe was the only bowler capable of taking full advantage of the conditions.

England scored 76 in their first innings; when South Africa batted, Colin Blythe took eight for 59, the best Test match figures of his career.

Colin Blythe's bowling was not always accurate but he made the ball turn sharply off the damp pitch, and South Africa were bowled out for 110.

Colin Blythe took seven for 40 to bowl South Africa out for 75; he ended the match with figures of 15 for 99, at the time, the best figures in a Test match in England.

Colin Blythe ended the season with a total of 26 Test wickets at an average of 10.38.

Colin Blythe took 41 wickets at 22.80 in first-class matches on the tour.

Kent were runners-up in the County Championship in 1908; on generally good batting pitches in a dry summer, Colin Blythe was not quite as devastating as the previous season, but he took 167 wickets in the Championship, his best in a season to that point in his career.

Colin Blythe took wickets consistently but was hampered by an injured knee; he twisted it in a game against Yorkshire.

Colin Blythe missed a few games and was hampered in others.

Colin Blythe's benefit match was the second game of Canterbury Week, played against Hampshire, and was a financial success.

Kent went on to win the County Championship, Colin Blythe taking the wicket which made the outcome a certainty.

Colin Blythe's good start to the season ensured his selection for the 1909 Ashes series; prior to the first Test, he had taken 38 wickets in his previous three games.

At the start of the third and final day, Australia scored quite freely and added another 30 runs before Colin Blythe took the next wicket.

Wickets then fell quickly; and Colin Blythe finished with five for 58.

At the start of his next game, for Kent, Colin Blythe was overcome with emotion when the crowd gave him an ovation for his performance in the Test; when he later came on to bowl, he complained of feeling faint after his first over.

Colin Blythe remained on the field and recovered later to take six for 37.

Colin Blythe returned to the England team for the fourth Test and took five for 63 in the first innings, but was less effective in the second.

Colin Blythe had played just two of the five Tests, taking 18 wickets at 13.44.

Colin Blythe did lead the touring team in wickets, taking 50 in ten first-class matches, and came into the side for the final two Tests.

Colin Blythe took two hat-tricks in his career, both of them within the same fortnight at the end of June and the beginning of July 1910.

Colin Blythe took 175 wickets and was second after Razor Smith.

Colin Blythe took 138 wickets at 19.38 with a best analysis of eight for 45.

Colin Blythe achieved 5wI ten times and 10wM five times.

Colin Blythe had the seventh-highest number of wickets and the fifth-best average.

Colin Blythe had his best season in statistical terms as he was both the leading wicket-taker and top of the bowling averages.

Colin Blythe took 178 wickets at 12.26 with a best return of eight for 36.

Colin Blythe achieved 5wI sixteen times and 10wM eight times.

Colin Blythe again topped the bowling averages with 16.34 but his tally of 167 wickets was third-highest behind Major Booth and Bill Hitch.

Colin 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 Colin Blythe took eleven wickets against Worcestershire, including seven for 20 on a drying pitch to win the match for Kent.

At 35 years of age, Colin 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.

Colin Blythe's enlistment was covered by the press and whilst at Tonbridge he undertook a recruiting tour of Kent, enlisting another 25 men.

Colin Blythe was promoted to corporal by the end of the year and to serjeant in 1915.

The side played matches against the Royal Engineers, a South African XI and Chatham Garrison amongst others in 1916, and Colin Blythe played at Lord's and The Oval and against a Linden Park side containing four of Kent's players.

Colin Blythe played more cricket whilst at Marlow, playing alongside Woolley and Jennings.

Colin Blythe took only one wicket, Australian international Charlie Macartney.

Colin Blythe was posted to the 12th battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a pioneer battalion which had been raised in Leeds and consisted mostly of Yorkshire miners.

Shrapnel from a shell burst pierced Colin Blythe's chest, killing him instantly; the same burst wounded Woolley.

Colin Blythe is buried in the Oxford Road Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery near Ypres.

Pelham Warner, who had played with Colin 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.

Colin Blythe is 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.

Two of Colin Blythe's wallets, torn by the shrapnel which killed him, are on display inside the pavilion at Canterbury.

Colin Blythe, who had complete mastery of flight and spin, bowled consistently to a full-length and made effective use of his fingers at the point of delivery to determine if the ball would be an orthodox break or a late inswinger, either of which was a difficult ball to face on a pitch that helped the bowler.

Thomson declared Rhodes and Colin Blythe to have been "the greatest of slow left-hand bowlers" but stated a slight personal preference for Rhodes.

Colin Blythe is depicted as the bowler in Albert Chevallier Tayler's oil painting, Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury, commissioned by Kent at the suggestion of Lord Harris to commemorate the club's first official County Championship title in 1906.

Technically, Altham says, Colin Blythe's strengths were "the quickness of his break and rise from the pitch, combined with his perfect length".

Colin Blythe met Janet Gertrude Brown, who was from Royal Tunbridge Wells, in 1906.

Colin Blythe was called Janet by her own family but Blythe and everyone in his family called her Gertrude so, like him, she had two familiar names.

Colin Blythe had played with a London music hall orchestra before his marriage, and afterwards with the Tonbridge Symphony Orchestra and other musical organisations in Kent.

Colin Blythe's preference was for classical music, especially that of Brahms and Mozart.

Altham recounts how Colin Blythe was "utterly exhausted" after the Headingley Test in 1907 when he took 15 wickets in the match.

Colin Blythe was active in first-class cricket for sixteen seasons from 1899 to 1914, playing in 439 matches.

Colin Blythe delivered a total of 103,546 balls and took 2,503 wickets at a bowling average of 16.81 runs per wicket.

Colin Blythe took five-wickets in an innings 218 times, ten wickets in a match 71 times, and 100 wickets in a season 14 times.

Colin Blythe is ranked 13th in the list of first-class wicket-takers, but had a much shorter career than any of the players above him.

Colin Blythe played 19 Test matches for England between December 1901 and March 1910.

Colin Blythe delivered 4,456 balls and took exactly 100 wickets at an average of 18.63.

Colin Blythe took five-wickets in an innins nine times and ten-wickets in a match four times in Tests.