Skip to content

Cricketers of WW1: Remembering Colin Blythe and AEJ Collins

Blythe and Collins among at least 34 first-class cricketers to die in the conflict

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

We remember Colin Blythe and AEJ Collins

Cricketers from all over the globe gave their lives in the First World War.

Click on the video above to hear Sky Sports statistician Benedict Bermange tell the story of two players - Colin Blythe and AEJ Collins - who left their mark on the record books.

At least 34 first-class cricketers were killed among the 210 county players who served in the First World War, including former Kent and England bowler Colin Blythe.

The left-arm spinner took 100 wickets in 19 Tests and 2,500 in his first-class career. He died in November 1917 at Passchendaele after being hit by shrapnel while working as an engineer on a military railway line.

Also See:

Another victim of hostilities was Collins, who died in the First Battle of Ypres - Collins scored 628 not out in a junior house match when aged just 13 in June 1899.

Around Sky