Roy Kilner
Roy Kilner was an English professional cricketer who played nine Test matches for England between 1924 and 1926. An all-rounder, he played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1927. In all first-class matches, he scored 14,707 runs at an average of 30.01 and took 1,003 wickets at an average of 18.45. Kilner scored 1,000 runs in a season ten times and took 100 wickets in a season five times. On four occasions, he completed the double: scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the same season, recognised as a sign of a quality all-rounder.
Kilner first played for Yorkshire as a batsman before the First World War, establishing a regular place in the side. After being wounded in the war, he returned in 1919 to a Yorkshire side which was short of bowlers. As a result, Kilner began to practise his bowling to the point where he became highly regarded as a slow left-arm bowler. His aggressive batting and warm personality made him a popular player with both cricketers and spectators. His form brought selection by England in 1924 and a visit to Australia for the Ashes tour of 1924–25. Although the second most successful bowler of the tour, his bowling subsequently declined in effectiveness, and did not trouble batsmen on good pitches. He was selected during the 1926 Ashes but dropped for the final Test. Kilner went on several coaching trips to India during English winters, and on one of these, in 1928, he contracted an illness; on his return to England, he died aged 37. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people and there was widespread sadness at his death.
Early life
Kilner was born on 17 October 1890 in Wombwell, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, the second son and one of eleven children of Seth Kilner and Mary Alice Washington. His brother Norman also played cricket, representing Yorkshire and Warwickshire. The Kilners attended Wombwell Parish Church and the boys were members of the Church Lads' Brigade. His father and his uncle, Irving Washington, the former Yorkshire player, encouraged him to play cricket from an early age. He showed enough ability to join the local colliery team, Mitchell Main.At the age of 14 in 1904, Kilner reached the Mitchell Main first team. Although selected regularly from 1905, Kilner was not particularly successful with the bat. He displayed aggression but often attempted difficult shots and consequently lost his wicket. His bowling was more effective but used infrequently. By 1909 his batting improved; he scored his first century for the team and began to make consistently good scores, attracting the attention of Yorkshire.
First years at Yorkshire
Debut for Yorkshire
After scoring a second century for Mitchell Main at the start of the 1910 season, Kilner was chosen to play for Yorkshire Second XI. In his first season, he took three wickets and had a batting average of 12.50 but continued to do well for Mitchell Main. For 1911, Yorkshire sent Kilner to play for Harrogate Cricket Club which provided a higher standard of cricket than Mitchell Main: the county had a system whereby promising young players were sent to gain experience in competitive matches for local clubs. Kilner began to record good batting and bowling performances. Although his form for Yorkshire Second XI was more inconsistent, he made his first-class debut for Yorkshire that season against Somerset in the County Championship. He scored 0 and 14 and did not bowl. In a further six matches for Yorkshire in 1911, his highest innings was 18 runs, his average with the bat was just 6.66 in ten innings and he did not take any wickets. For Harrogate, he was more successful, with 519 runs and 28 wickets.Yorkshire regular
Kilner made a good start to 1912 for Yorkshire Second XI, scoring centuries in two consecutive games; in the second he also took twelve wickets for 75 runs. These performances, coupled with continued good form for Harrogate, led to Kilner's recall to the Yorkshire first team in June. He replaced the injured all-rounder George Hirst for a match against Nottinghamshire. On the first morning, Kilner was used as the sixth bowler and proved successful; he finished with four wickets for 66 runs. Although failing to score in the first innings, he came in to bat in the second innings with Yorkshire 133 for four, needing 249 for victory. He shared a partnership of 113 for the fifth wicket and scored 83 not out to take Yorkshire to a five wicket win. This performance kept Kilner in the team for the remainder of the season, even after Hirst's return. He played 23 times for Yorkshire. He scored 570 runs at an average of 22.80 and took 16 wickets at an average of 22.12, figures regarded as respectable for a first full season. Yorkshire won the County Championship that season. Apart from one game in the 1913 season, he ceased playing for Harrogate. In his years there, he scored 967 runs, averaging 38.68, and took 71 wickets at an average of less than ten runs per wicket.In the 1913 season, Kilner scored 1,586 runs at an average of 34.47, which remained his highest seasonal aggregate of runs and placed him third in the Yorkshire batting averages. He also took 18 wickets at 25.22. At the end of May and beginning of June, Kilner took part in century partnerships in four consecutive matches, culminating in his maiden first-class century against Leicestershire. During his innings of 104, he hit 18 fours and shared a partnership of 184 in under two hours with his close friend Major Booth, rescuing Yorkshire from 58 for five and taking the score to 300. Throughout the season, he played several valuable innings when Yorkshire were under pressure. His batting was always adventurous and attacking although he often made uncertain starts to his innings and showed impatience. The strength and variety of the Yorkshire bowling attack meant his left-arm spin was not often required. Even so, Yorkshire dropped to second in the Championship.
An illness during the winter of 1913–14 took its toll on Kilner at the start of the 1914 season. He passed 1,000 runs for the second time but due to his uncertain form, his aggregate of runs and his average both fell. He scored 1,329 runs, placing him fourth in the Yorkshire batting averages. His bowling was rarely used and he took just one wicket. Kilner scored his second first-class century against Gloucestershire late in the season; he made 169 in nearly three and a half hours, hitting 28 fours. Yorkshire fell to fourth in the championship.
First World War
The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, while Kilner was playing in that season's Roses Match at Old Trafford. Initially the government requested that cricket should continue, though several cricketers with military obligations, including Yorkshire's captain, Sir Archibald White, were called up immediately. As the fighting started, and casualties began to mount, public opinion turned against the continuation of the season, and Yorkshire's match against Sussex at Hove, which concluded on 1 September, was the last County Championship match until 1919. The newspaper Cricket reported "The men's hearts were barely in the game, and the match was given up as a draw at tea." With the suspension of the championship, Kilner and Major Booth enlisted in the army together, joining the Leeds and Bradford "Pals" in the West Yorkshire Regiment. Kilner trained as a mechanic before being stationed at Colsterdale in North Yorkshire as a corporal. While on leave in November 1914, Kilner married Annie Campbelljohn—the daughter of James Campbelljohn, an engineer—at Wombwell Parish Church; Booth served as best man. During the war, Annie gave birth to the couple's first child, Roy junior. Kilner was posted with his battalion to Egypt but was forced home with an injury. When he recovered, he was sent to the Western Front in France. During the Battle of the Somme, he was wounded shortly before his battalion engaged in the fighting, receiving a shrapnel wound in the wrist; later in the same action, Booth was killed. Kilner recovered in a military hospital near Blackpool before being assigned to Preston Garrison as a mechanic. Kilner suffered a second loss when his brother Bernard was killed at Ypres in 1917.Having previously played football for Mitchell Main in the winter of 1912–13, Kilner played as a right-back for Preston North End F.C. while posted to Preston during the war. The team won promotion from the Second Division in 1915, and took their place in the First Division when league football resumed in 1919. Sometimes playing under the name of Smith to avoid detection, Kilner's first certain appearance for the team was in September 1918. It is unclear how often he represented the club.
First-class career after the war
From batsman to bowler
When cricket resumed after the war in 1919, County Championship matches were reduced from three days to two in a one-season experiment. Following the deaths of Booth in the war and Alonzo Drake from illness, as well as the decline in the bowling of the aging George Hirst, Yorkshire lacked an effective attack. Subsequently, Kilner was asked to deliver more overs, although not to the extent of a main bowler. He took 45 wickets, more than his entire first-class wicket aggregate before the war, at an average of 18.12. This placed him third in the Yorkshire averages. With the bat he scored three centuries and reached 1,135 runs at 29.10. His performances earned him a place in the Gentlemen v Players match at the end of season during the Scarborough Festival, although he neither took a wicket nor scored. Kilner's brother Norman also played for Yorkshire in 1919, although he was ultimately unable to secure a permanent place in the team.Kilner began the 1920 season with an innings of 206 not out in his first match, against Derbyshire, and the effort remained the highest score of his career. He batted for four hours, hitting 24 fours and two sixes. He could have been caught when he had scored around fifty, but a local newspaper described the innings as brilliant, his driving and pulling being particularly effective. Kilner appeared in one representative match: at the end-of-season Scarborough Festival, he played for CI Thornton's XI against the Marylebone Cricket Club side which visited Australia in the winter—at the time, the MCC administered English cricket, and the England team toured under its name. In total, he scored 1,316 runs at an average of 37.09 with two more centuries, placing him second in the Yorkshire averages. With the ball, he took 27 wickets but his average of 25.33 was relatively high. The county finished fourth in the Championship as Middlesex were crowned winners. Critics believed Kilner should have bowled more frequently, an opinion shared by Wilfred Rhodes, Yorkshire's main slow left-arm spinner. Conscious of his increasing age, the 42-year-old Rhodes wanted support with the bowling workload; he considered Kilner the best option and encouraged him to improve his left-arm spin. Consequently, during the winter, Kilner practised bowling in the yard of the Wombwell hotel where his father was landlord. Around the same time he celebrated the birth of his second son, named Major after Major Booth.
Kilner's bowling had greater success in 1921, helping Yorkshire to rise to third in the Championship. Used more regularly, he took 61 wickets, including his first five-wicket hauls in an innings, against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. He scored 1,137 runs at an average of 27.73. He made centuries in the two matches against Northamptonshire, sharing big partnerships in both games: 276 with Rhodes in the first and 299 with Percy Holmes in the second. His overall performance left him sixth in the Yorkshire batting averages, and fourth in the bowling averages. Through the winter, he continued to develop his bowling.