Albert Knight

Albert Ernest Knight, who died in April 1946, aged 72, was a sound batsman and an excellent field at cover-point. He did fine service for Leicestershire from 1895 to 1912, when he went to Highgate School as coach. During that period he scored nearly 20,000 runs at an average of 29.24. Knight possessed no exceptional gifts as a cricketer, but, studious and painstaking, made himself a first-rate batsman of the old style. Driving particularly well to the off and using the square-cut with good effect, he pulled or hooked scarcely at all. In 1899--his first big year--he made 1,246 runs, and for eight consecutive seasons reached his thousand. At his best in 1903, when, sixth in the general first-class averages, his aggregate was 1,835, average 45. Among his most notable successes were 229 not out at Worcester, 144 not out at Trent Bridge, 144 at The Oval, 127 against Surrey at Leicester, and a faultless 139 for Players against Gentlemen at Lord's. Curiously enough, during that summer Leicestershire gained only one victory in the County Championship. In the autumn of 1903 Knight went to Australia in the M.C.C. team captained by P. F. Warner. Figuring in three of the five Test matches, Knight scored 70 not out at Sydney in the fourth game of the series, and on the same ground made 104 against New South Wales, but, on the whole, scarcely realised expectations. The following summer found him again in great form with an aggregate of 1,412, an average of 40, and five separate three-figure innings to his credit, including 203 against M.C.C. at Lord's. He wrote a book entitled The Complete Cricketer, grandiose in style, containing much startling metaphor.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack