EL KiddArguably the greatest cricketer ever to play for Ireland (as distinct from the greatest Irish cricketer) is alive and well and living his 90th year in a secluded, fashionable area in Dun Laoghaire.

I had done my homework before I visited Leslie Kidd. Awesome! I would have been impressed to meet someone who had simply seen some of the game's great demi gods, but here I was conversationally touching the hem of a man who had actually played with them on equal terms. Mind-boggling!

He almost sprang from his chair to greet me, and the fingers that had once twisted a sharp one on to Rhodes's leg stump and the hand that held a wayward cut to gulley by Hobbs now grasped mine in the friendliest of welcomes. Spry is the conventional word to describe someone carrying so many years with such easy grace. But he is more than that. The sharp classical features and the alert bright eyes somehow gave off an air of innocent pleasure and the flattering expectancy of a new experience. Since my purpose was, on the contrary, to lead him back into the past, I must have been a disappointment to him.

CAMBRIDGE IN 1909

EL Kidd is an Englishman who has spent a great deal of his life in Ireland. After Wellington College he went up to Cambridge in 1909 and three years later took a first in mechanical science. There followed brief periods of work in a Clyde shipyard, post graduate studies at Cambridge in 1913 and, just before the outbreak of the Great War, he joined the staff of Guinness. His was service was in the army and then he found himself in Dublin as a brewer in St James's Gate. There he remained until 1937, when he was transferred to Park Royal in London. He came back to this country in 1967 to spend the remaining years of his retirement.

He was obviously an astonishingly mature cricketer at an early age. He had no difficulty in making the Cambridge side in his first season in 1910, and he also played for Middlesex in August of that year. In the following year he was noted as 'much the best cricketer in recent years' and scored his first century (150 not out), batting at 8 for Middlesex against Hampshire.

In 1912 his position as a formidable batsman was firmly established and he was also taking a respectable number of wickets as a slow-medium, leg-breaker. His captaincy of Cambridge was brilliant and his all-round contribution to the defeat of Oxford was vital (46 and 45, as well as eight wickets and two catches). In the Lord's Gentlemen v Players match (and in the stunning company of Hobbs, Rhodes, CP Mead, JW Hearne, RH Spooner, CB Fry and Sidney Barnes), he scored 34 and took 4-97.

By now he was standing in for Plum Warner whenever the latter was not available to captain Middlesex, and against Sussex he made his highest score of 167.

A GLORIOUS SEASON

Leslie Kidd was only 23 when, between May and the end of July 1913, he played his last period of first-class English cricket. He did it in style. He scored 150 for the University against MCC, and 123 and 50 not out (plus five wickets) against Yorkshire. His average was just short of 50 and The Times declared that he was now ready, not only to play for England, but also to captain his country. But it was not to be. He felt his career was a priority and, in any case, the war and his subsequent transfer to Dublin settled his destiny for him.

Obviously, I was curious, to put it mildly, to hear his views and comments on the great cricketers he had played with. I persuaded him to indulge in the old game of picking his greatest team from among all the players he had seen during the past 70-odd years. The process went something like this:

'Well, there are some players who I would have to have in my side without qualification. Hobbs, Trumper, Bradman and Ranji must top the batting order. Hobbs was everything that everyone said about him, and on a personal level he was also one of the kindest and most gentle of men. He was constantly improving his cricket. He achieved greatness, whereas the other three had, so to speak, greatness thrust upon them. Their genius was born with them, they were naturals, even freaks. If I have any reservation about Bradman it's one of character. When he found himself batting on a wicket that didn't suit him, he simply lost interest.

'I would also have to pick Sidney Barnes and Rhodes. Wilfred was a splendid bat, but I rate his bowling on the very highest level. Barnes, of course, was quite in a class of his own. He had literally everything — length, flight, swinging or spinning a little either way. He was the master, the total master, of every trick, and he never gave you a moment's peace. But he was a rum sort of chap. Very quiet and withdrawn.

GREAT ALL ROUNDERS

'Now I have to pick two superlative all-rounders — Gary Sobers and Frank Foster. I don't need to say anything about Sobers, except that I wouldn't argue against those who say he was the most complete player who ever lived. Foster's greatness, however, is not appreciated today. He usually got runs when they were needed, but his bowling was very special. He looked like a useful fastmedium type, but the first time I faced him young Jack Hearne warned me: 'Watch him, Mr Kidd. He's the fastest off the wicket I've ever seen.' That was an understatement. He could make the ball flash off a good length like lightening and left you waving your bat in the air. So you had to treat him like a very, very fast bowler and get yourself into position immediately. Terribly deceptive.'

Then The Selector had a sudden thought — 'I haven't got Compton or Jessop in yet', but I sidetracked by getting him to consider some specialist bowlers. 'Larwood and Hitch to open the attack, though I'd like to find room for Lillee.' I raised an eyebrow at the mention of Hitch. 'He's been terribly under-rated, you know. He was very fast and accurate. He bowled in the old style, never down the leg side.

'And Jim Laker would be essential; a brilliant spinner and a clever chap. He was always up to something and quick to spot a weakness.'

Leslie Kidd was now starting to have regrets that he wasn't getting Constantine into his side, or 'old' Jack Hearne ('much more polished than his son. He was finishing about the time I was starting. I remember the Middlesex committee coming to the conclusion that poor old Jack would have to pack it in, so he gave them their answer and topped the averages!').

At this stage I had to intervene and pin him down to eleven men. They were: Hobbs, Trumper, Bradman, Ranji, Foster, Sobers, Rhodes, Larwood, Laker, Hitch and Barnes. The purists might argue that, however great the forgotten distinction of the individuals, the team was not perfectly balanced. Particularly since we had forgotten to include a wicketkeeper! Strudwick, Woodfull and Ames were considered carefully, all scoring points of approval on various counts. I suggested Evans and Knott, but the mention of the latter detonated a minor explosion. 'Knott's a first slip, not a wicketkeeper! If I was fielding at first slip beside him I'd knock him on the head!'

Eventually, after brooding on the merits of Bob Taylor, he picked Ames and I allowed him his twelve nominations, the final eleven to be declared just before the toss. I reckon his side would be good for a thousand runs on a reasonable wicket.

By the way, in case some readers may be puzzled that Wally Hamnond was never mentioned, the fact is simply that he was the one great figure Leslie Kidd never saw.

YEARS IN IRELAND

I looked at this man who had taken part in fewer than four years of a great era of cricket and wondered out loud if he had not suffered a sense of loss by leaving it all behind him for the comparative obscurity of Irish cricket.

'Not in the least', he said without hesitation. 'You see, I was terribly interested in my work, and Guinness is a marvellous company. I joined Phoenix, where I was able to get all the cricket I wanted. It was a grand club and the game was treated simply as a game, which is just the way it should be. I think it's a frightful bore if you take sport too seriously. If you don't get any fun out of it, then you may as well pack it in.'

I asked him about Irish players of the 1920s. 'I would say that, though they were over the top at the time, Bob Lambert and Bill Harrington were outstandingly better than anyone else. Bob, of course, was an allrounder and he could be either very, very good indeed when he felt in good humour or rather ordinary when he didn't. I was very friendly with Bill, who was a first-class bowler. He kept a beautiful length and his flighting was always causing problems for batsmen.

'AP Kelly, who also played for Phoenix, was a solid bat and a safe wicket-keeper; not top class, perhaps, but reliable. John Crawford was in Guinness with me and loved the small Phoenix ground. He was a huge hitter.

'I was very fond of Jim Ganly. A really nice chap and a superb fielder. Allen was another Phoenix man on the Irish side. He was pretty good and steady. He took a lot of wickets in club cricket, but I don't think he did awfully well for Ireland.

'An old chum of mine at Cambridge who took over the captaincy from me was Harry Mulholland. He was a fine cricketer and a most amusing chap. He was able to play only once for Ireland and made 149. He became Lord Mayor of Belfast.'

Leslie Kidd has kept in touch with cricket. He doesn't think that the standard of batting has improved ('the wickets have a lot to do with that'), but he is very enthusiastic about modern fielding ('much better than it was in my day'). In fact, he believes that the English side in Australia last winter was the best fielding team there has ever been. Not surprisingly, he regards one-day, limited-over cricket to be an abomination.

I could have gone on talking to this wonderful man for many more hours, but I didn't want to stretch mb luck or strain even his remarkable energy. Ectoplasms of the past are in plentiful supply if you sit in the right circles, but flesh and blood heroes are rather harder to come by.