Leslie Kidd

At the outbreak of the First World War, Eric Leslie Kidd, who died on July 2 at the great age of 94, was considered as a possible for Test selection for England. London-horn and educated at Wellington College, he won Blues at Cambridge four times running, beginning in 1910 ('Le Couteur's match') and excelling in 1912 with a pair of forties and figures of 5 for 75 and 3 for 68. In 1910 he first played for Middlesex, as an amateur, and scored a chanceless even-time 150 not out against Hampshire at Lord's the following season, going in at No. 8. Though he played for Gentlemen v Players (three times before the Great War and once in 1921), Kidd achieved little of further note for Middlesex until 1919, the season of two-day county matches, when he scored 100 against Surrey at The Oval and 92 against Essex at Leyton. But he had been honoured by the captaincy in 1912 while 'Plum' Warner was recovering from illness, and his legspin occasionally came in useful. Playing for Middlesex only during vacation from Dublin, where he was on the staff of Guinness, the bespectacled Leslie Kidd became a legend in Irish cricket, averaging 40 for his club, Phoenix (and under 14 with the ball). For Middlesex he scored 1848 runs (19.05) and took 44 wickets (23.93), and in all first-class cricket, 1910-30, he made 5113 runs (24.94), with six centuries, and took 186 wickets (24.83), with best figures of 8 for 49.
Wisden Cricket Monthly