Cyril Alexander Frederick (Alec) Hastilow

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(31 May 1895 – 30 September 1975) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er who played in two matches for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

in 1919. He was also prominent in cricket administration as chairman of the Warwickshire club and on the committee of the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influenc ...

(MCC) at times of significant decisions in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A businessman, he was chairman for many years of Smith and Nephew. He was born in

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and died in

Moseley Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...

, also in Birmingham. As a cricketer, Hastilow, a right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow bowler, had a very long career on the fringes of first-class cricket, though he appeared in Warwickshire's first team only twice, both times in the 1919 season when the county cricket teams often struggled for players because of the depredations of the First World War and the slow demobilisation of service personnel. The transitory nature of cricket in that season is demonstrated by the fact that in Hastilow's second match – the match against Worcestershire which was not a

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

match, Worcestershire not able to enter the competition that season – there were 11 players making their first-class debuts and seven, including Hastilow, appearing for the last time; his 14 in his only innings and his two wickets for 56 runs were the best batting and bowling performances of his career. Below first-class cricket, however, Hastilow was tireless, playing for the Warwickshire Club and Ground team from before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and appearing in second eleven cricket for the county from 1930 through to 1947. When he retired from playing, he took on a succession of administrative posts as honorary secretary, chairman and president. He was Warwickshire's delegate to several important cricket committees and as a member of the MCC committee he sat on sub-committees that reported on the future structure of the game in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the abolition of

amateur status in first-class cricket Amateur status had a special meaning in English cricket. The amateur in this context was not merely someone who played cricket in his spare time but a particular type of first-class cricketer who existed officially until 1962, when the distincti ...

and the introduction of the first one-day competition. Hastilow had a distinguished industrial career and was on the board of the UK's leading paint manufacturer Pinchin Johnson and of the hygiene products group Southalls; from 1962 to 1968 he was chairman of Smith and Nephew, which had acquired Southalls in 1957. During the Second World War he worked for the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for air ...

and was awarded the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1947; this was upgraded to a

in 1955. His daughter Helen Rosemary married the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

cricket captain

Abdul Hafeez Kardar Abdul Hafeez Kardar PP, HI ( ur, ) (17 January 1925 – 21 April 1996) was a Pakistani cricketer, politician and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test cric ...

, who also played for Warwickshire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastilow, Alec 1895 births 1975 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers English cricket administrators 20th-century British businesspeople