The Twelfth Man 2013

25 of Wombwell , a biography of Roy timed to celebrate the centenary of his birth in October 1890. And now I have been drawn back once more, consumed and still bewildered by the scenes that were witnessed in the streets of Wombwell on Tuesday 10 April 1928 – the day of Roy Kilner’s funeral. No county cricketer playing the game in the 1920s, or any other era for that matter, could have been more favoured or admired than the ever-cheerful Kilner. Peter Thomas captured him perfectly, describing the Wombwell player thus: “Kilner was the Friar Tuck of the team, enjoying to the full of the excesses and good things of this life, and yet still dedicated to the arts and charms and crafts of his calling.” J.M.Kilburn wrote: “He played his cricket in the best of spirit and his character communicated itself to the crowds, who enjoyed both the earnestness in his bowling and the adventure in his batting.” Those Yorkshire crowds fully demonstrated their affection for ‘our Roy’ in his benefit season of 1925 with a return of £4,106: an amount not exceeded until after the Second World War. But the greatest outpouring of fondness was reserved for that sad day in April 1928 when men and women from all walks of life, of all social standings and backgrounds, cricket followers, friends, Yorkshire colleagues, young and old, walked miles, arrived on buses, trams and trains and filled Wombwell like never before and like never since. Think of the numbers – they say, at least, 100,000 people crowded into the usually quiet colliery town – to bid farewell. As the cricket-playing world wept, Neville Cardus, who loved Kilner’s rich humour and Yorkshire dialect, summed up the emotions of so many: “It is like being told that some genial Yorkshire breeze has died and will never again blow over the faces of men and refresh them.” As Yorkshire CCC celebrates its very special 150 th anniversary this year, let us at Wombwell not forget two moments from that long and enduring history – one of joy (that maiden hundred back in 1913) and one of great sorrow (that funeral day, 85 years ago) – in remembering one of the County’s most celebrated characters. Roy Kilner is featured in Headingley Ghosts: A collection of Yorkshire Cricket Tragedies published by Scratching Shed Publishing. To order a copy call 0113 2259797 or online at www.scratchingshedpublishing.com. Tuesday, 10 April, 1928 – a group of black-suited, past and present Yorkshire cricketers (front to back): George Hirst, Arthur Dolphin, Wilfred Rhodes, David Denton, Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes accompany the hearse carrying the body of their late colleague, Roy Kilner, through the crowded streets of Wombwell. Photos: Mick Pope Collection