Bill Ashdown – A ‘Good County Pro’ for Kent between the Wars

By definition, few of us get to the top in our chosen walks of life. Most of us are more-or-less average - we do our best and earn our pay and hope that we will be thought of reasonably fondly when we are gone. To subtly reinforce that point, there are euphemisms that one often reads in the obituaries of those who never quite got to the top, to praise them while keeping them in their place. Thus a politician will be described as a ‘good constituency M.P.’ if they never succeeded as a Minister, while a person who appeared in T.V. film or stage dramas is invariably a ‘good character actor’, if they were never given starring roles. And the cricketing equivalent is the ‘good county pro’, who has a long and productive career in the first class game without attracting the Test or ODI selectors.

Bill Ashdown in 1926

As with our other examples, it is tempting to regard the ‘good county pro’ as something of a failure for not gaining an international cap. But he (and increasingly, she) is still light years ahead of the rest of us who have played cricket in talent, skill and achievement. In English men’s county cricket, at any one time, if we exclude centrally contracted players who mainly play in internationals, overseas players who flit in and out, and reserves who play a few games a year, there are probably fewer than two hundred ‘good county pros’. This is less than the number of Michelin starred chefs in the UK, and if we take it that the latter are among the best in the country out of all those who cook for a living, then we should regard the ‘good county pros’ as among the best of all those who play cricket.

To take the point further, here is an example. In 2001, my son was eleven years old and in his final year at a Lancashire primary school, and he played for his school in a ‘mini-cricket’ tournament against some other local schools. One of the opposing schools included a boy who, although aged just ten, was both taller than all the rest in the competition, and a far, far better cricketer. He was a left-hander, batted with easy grace and classic shots, and bowled a medium-fast pace that was far too much for the little boys he was playing against. Needless to say, his school won the tournament at a canter, and I felt sure that I would see that boy again on a professional cricket field. He looked so good that he could be a star in the making.

Sure enough, some twelve years later, he made his county debut for Lancashire. His name was Luis Reece, and he began to forge a career as an all-rounder. But he never became a star, and for the first few years it looked like he might not make it at all; finding himself stuck on the fringe of the county side and troubled by injuries. However, after a few years, he moved to Derbyshire, and is still there, now aged 36. He has had a very decent career, with a highest first-class score of 211 and best bowling performance of 7 for 20, but has never interested the international selectors (and has only ever played two matches in that jumped-up English cricketing circus, the Hundred). In short, the spectacular ability that he showed at the age of ten has led him to a career as a ‘good county pro’.

Luis Reece batting in 2001, aged 10. The author's son is fielding in the covers.

Which long introduction brings us to the subject of this article, Bill Ashdown, who played for Kent in a career that neatly fitted between the wars. There is a similarity with Luis Reece, for, while Ashdown was right-handed and Reece left-handed, both were all-rounders who not infrequently opened both the batting and bowling for their counties. And like Reece, Ashdown never came close to international selection. But he was still a top quality cricketer, capable of feats that the rest of us can only dream of. Only four triple centuries have been scored for Kent in the county championship – and Bill Ashdown scored two of them. He also has the rare distinction of playing his first first-class match at the age of 15, and is the only man to play first class cricket before the first world war, and after the second. After his playing career was over, he spent the rest of his working life in cricket, as a coach, groundsman, umpire and finally, scorer. So this is the tale of a singular ‘good county pro’.

William Henry (Bill) Ashdown was born on 27^th December 1898 in Bromley, the son of a bricklayer, and was educated at Ennersdale Road school, Lewisham. In 1914, he came to the attention of ‘Gerry’ Weigall, a former Cambridge University and Kent batsman who was acting as coach to promising Kent youngsters, and he made his first-class debut that year, aged 15 years and 170 days, for GJV Weigall’s XI v Oxford University, scoring 3 and 27. He wasn’t quite the youngest to play first class cricket in England, that distinction belonging at the time to C. R. Young, who was 15 years and 131 days when he played for Hampshire v Kent in 1867, and now held by Barney Gibson, who was 15 years and 27 days when he kept wicket for Yorkshire v Durham MCCU in 2011.

Ashdown had to wait until after the war to make his debut for Kent, first playing for the county in 1920. He had an eighteen year career, retiring after the 1937 season, but playing one further first-class match in 1947, to give him his unique record. His career statistics place him firmly within the ‘good county pro’ category:

Batting: 487 matches, 812 innings, 22589 runs, highest score 332, average 30.92, 39 hundreds.

Bowling: 19551 runs, 602 wickets, best bowling 6 for 23, average 32.47.

He passed 1,000 runs in a season eleven times, once scoring over 2,000 runs. He never took 100 wickets however, so did not achieve the ‘double’. He was a fine slip fielder, taking 400 catches, and even kept wicket on occasion, with one stumping.

Before the first world war, Kent had a rare purple patch, winning the county championship four times in eight years. They did not win it again until 1970, but were among the leading sides between the wars, seldom finishing outside the top five. They had a strong batting line-up, including Frank Woolley, Wally Hardinge, Leslie Ames, Arthur Fagg and one-time England captain Percy Chapman. Ashdown opened the batting for many years, with Hardinge and later Woolley or Fagg as his regular partners. As for bowling, Frank Woolley was a fine slow left armer, but Kent relied on the devastating leg-spin of ‘Tich’ Freeman, who took 3340 wickets for the county between 1914 and 1936. The county’s main weakness was a lack of penetrating pace bowling, and Ashdown not infrequently had to open the bowling as well as the batting, despite being better suited to a change bowling role.

By 1934 Bill Ashdown had served Kent well for some fourteen years; opening the batting, notching up his quota of runs and regular centuries, fielding skillfully in the slips and taking on his share of the bowling chores, without hinting at anything greater. Then in May 1934, and rather out of the blue, he made what remains to this day the highest individual score for Kent: 332 against Essex at Brentwood. He opened the batting with Arthur Fagg, and when the latter was out for 31, embarked on a second wicket stand of 352 with Frank Woolley, that was a county record until 1990 (it was overtaken by a partnership of 366 between two more ‘good county pros’, Simon Hinks and Neil Taylor). Woolley made 172, and then Leslie Ames added 202, Kent’s final score being 803 for 4 declared, another county record that still stands. After this marathon, Ashdown even opened the bowling, but soon gave way to Tich Freeman, who took eleven wickets as Essex were defeated by an innings and 192 runs.

Then next season, 1935, Ashdown scored another triple century, against Derbyshire at Dover. This time, it was a solo effort. Kent batted first, with Ashdown opening the innings with Frank Woolley, but were reduced to 32 for 2. Ashdown then took over, and on the first day, he scored 282 out of 518, and finished not out on 305, with 47 boundaries, as Kent were all out for 560 (the next highest score was Brian Valentine's 62). He was helped to his triple century by Kent’s number 11, Claude Lewis, who came in when he was on 295, and stayed long enough to see him over the line. Despite his efforts however, Derbyshire escaped with a draw. That was the end of his mammoth scoring feats, and he retired from the game after the 1937 season, aged 39.

At the time, Ashdown’s innings were the only triple centuries to be scored for Kent, and there have only been two others since, by Sean Dickson in 2017 and Daniel Bell-Drummond in 2023 - more good county pros! Of Ashdown’s 39 centuries, they were his only scores over 200. What do we make of these isolated episodes of brilliance in an otherwise solid but mundane career? Were they a sign of unfulfilled potential, of late development – or does every dog have its day? The history of cricket is full of examples of ordinary players doing extraordinary things. In 1911, Ted Alletson, who up to that point had had a not particularly successful career as a batsman for Nottinghamshire, went out to bat against Sussex when Notts were 185 for 7 in their second innings, and facing a heavy defeat. Alletson scored 189 out of 227 in ninety minutes – including 142 off 51 balls in 40 minutes after lunch, with 34 from one over by slow bowler Ernest Killick. It was his only first class century. And in 2024, Louis Kimber, a Leicestershire batsman whose career to that point (like Alletson’s) barely merited the ‘good county pro’ epithet, smashed Sussex for 243 out of 127 balls, the fastest double century in county championship history, and including 43 runs in one over (including no balls) from current England bowler Ollie Robinson. After the innings Kimber remarked, with singular understatement, “You don't get many days like that in your career, it was unbelievable really." Despite his effort, Leicestershire lost the game. Perhaps what all these feats prove is that even modest county pros have abilities far beyond the rest of us, that can emerge any time when the circumstances allow - remember that Luis Reece, our archetypal modern-day ‘good county pro’, has both a double century and a seven-wicket haul on his first-class record.

Following his retirement, Bill Ashdown was appointed coach and head groundsman at Rugby school. He moved to Rugby with his wife Bessie, whom he had married in 1923, and they lived there for the rest of their lives. Ashdown worked at the school until 1947, and in that year, aged 47, he made his final first-class appearance, in a match at the Harrogate festival for Maurice Leyland’s XI v the Rest, thus securing his distinction of being the only man to play first-class cricket before the first world war and after the second. In 1948 he returned to county cricket as an umpire, and in 1949 and 1950 he umpired in Test matches against New Zealand and the West Indies. However, he returned to coaching in 1951, as head coach at Leicestershire, where he stayed for ten years. Later, he was appointed Leicestershire’s scorer, and when they played Kent he could reminisce with Kent’s scorer – Claude Lewis, who in 1935 had helped him to his second triple century. In 1970, aged 71 he finally retired due to ill health and died in Rugby in 1979, aged 80.

Thus ended a long and successful cricketing life, that perhaps underlines that one doesn’t need to get to the top to have a fulfilling and celebrated career - though I dare say Bill Ashdown got a lot of satisfaction from stepping onto Test match grounds as an umpire. He has a rightful place in the pantheon of Kent’s leading players. And, as his Wisden obituary highlighted, he was a popular chap as well. One of his former pupils at Rugby school put it well: “I shall always remember him as the best of coaches and the finest of men”.

Sources Used

Moore D (1989) The History of Kent County Cricket Club. London: Christopher Helm

Cricinfo 

Wisden Cricketers Almanack.

Newspaper articles at the British Newspaper Archive.