Gerald Aste (30 July 1900 – 17 September 1961) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er based in India for many years, whose first-class career spanned the 1921/22 to 1935/36 Indian seasons. He played for various teams but mainly the

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

. In that respect, he was unusual as he played for them in both the

Madras Presidency Match The Madras Presidency Match was an annual first-class cricket fixture played in Madras (now Chennai) from the 1915–16 season to 1951–52 between teams called the Indians and the Europeans (i.e., Europeans who were living in India). The matches ...

and the

Bombay Quadrangular The Bombay Tournament was an annual cricket competition held in British India between 1892 and 1946. Until 1936, matches were played on either the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay or the Deccan Gymkhana Ground in Poona, and then at the Brabourne Stadi ...

Career

Born in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Aste was educated at

Felsted School Felsted School is a co-educational independent school, independent boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school, situated in Felsted in Essex, England. It is in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, and was founded i ...

near

Great Dunmow Great Dunmow is a historic market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It lies to the north of the A120 road, approximately midway between Bishop's Stortford and Braintree, Essex, Braintree, east of London Stanste ...

, in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. He played for his school team several times in 1915 and 1916.Miscellaneous matches played by Gerald Aste
CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 November 2023. On 22 August 1917, he played at

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

, in

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...

, for a Public Schools team against one representing the

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

. This was a one-day single-innings match which the Guards won by 34 runs after scoring 245/4 declared and bowling out Schools for 211. Aste did not take any wickets and he scored 13 runs, batting no. 6 for the Schools. Aste was 18 soon after leaving school in July 1918. He enlisted in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

under service number 180867. This was only three months before the end of the First World War. Aste was demobilised in 1919 and became a bank clerk. By the end of 1921, Aste had relocated to India where he made his first-class debut in January 1922, playing for the

against the

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

in the annual

at Chepauk Stadium.First-class matches played by Gerald Aste
CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 November 2023. He made five successive appearances in the match to January 1926, and was twice on the winning team. His best performances in the fixture were in 1925 and 1926. In the first of those matches, he took six wickets and two catches, helping the Europeans to win by 125 runs. In 1926, he opened the bowling and achieved his career-best figures of 5/90. He also took two catches as Indians were dismissed for 250 in answer to Europeans' score of 379. Europeans were bowled out for only 88 in their second innings but still won the match by 66 runs after Indians scored 151. Aste took 2/68 in the second innings while Alexander Penfold, who later played for

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, took 8/43.Europeans v Indians, Madras Presidency Match, January 1926
CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 November 2023. In September 1926, Aste played for the Europeans in the

for the first time. He played in the final of that tournament in 1927. Aste moved to Malaya, where he played twice for the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

against the

Federated Malay States The Federated Malay States (FMS, , Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of four protectorate, protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established in 1895 by the British government, and whi ...

in 1929 and 1931. He then returned to India and played for

Sind Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...

against

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

in 1933. In 1936, he played for the

Cricket Club of India Cricket Club of India (CCI) is a cricket club located on Dinsha Wacha Road, in Churchgate of Mumbai, India. It was conceived as India's counterpart to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It is considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the na ...

against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and, in his final match, for

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI ...

References

1900 births 1961 deaths British people in British Malaya British people in colonial India Cricketers from the London Borough of Bromley People from Beckenham Delhi cricketers English cricketers Europeans cricketers Sindh cricketers Straits Settlements cricketers {{India-cricket-bio-1900s-stub