Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks,
Football & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
22nd, 23rd & 24th March 2024
Lot 984
Estimate: £120/160
Hammer: £160
Colin Blythe. Kent & England 1899-1914. Rare mono printed postcard of Blythe, full length in bowling pose at the wicket. Nicely signed in black ink to the image by Blythe. Mockford of Tonbridge. Sold with two colour postcards of Blythe in different bowling poses, one by Raphael Tuck & Sons ‘In the Open’ series no. 6451, the other unknown. Postally unused. Good/ very good condition.
Colin Blythe was one of the principal left hand spin bowlers of the Edwardian era. He took over 2500 first class wickets with a best of 10-30 for Kent v Northamptonshire in 1907, he followed this by taking 7-18 in the second innings and with match figures of 17 wickets for 48 runs this still stands as the best bowling analysis in the County Championship. He took 100 wickets in nineteen Tests for England with a best of 8-59 v South Africa in 1907. Although Blythe suffered from epilepsy he freely volunteered for the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1914 and served with distinction on the Western Front. Blythe was killed in action by ‘random shellfire’ during the battle of Passchendaele, Belgium in November 1917.