Editing Colin Blythe (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Woolwich, Beresford Square & Plumstead Road, c 1900.jpg|thumb|right|The main gates of the [[Royal Arsenal]] at Woolwich in around 1900. Blythe was apprenticed here after leaving school in 1892.]]
Blythe was born on 30 May 1879 in [[Deptford]], at that time part of [[Kent]].{{efn|Deptford became part of the [[County of London]] in 1889, having previously been split between the counties of [[Kent]] and [[Surrey]].}}<ref name=dnb>Williams, 2015.</ref> His paternal grandfather, originally from [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], had moved to the area to work as a shirtmaker and later ran a warehouse there. Blythe's father, Walter, was an engineer fitter and his mother, Elizabeth Dready, was the daughter of a cooper.<ref name=dnb/><ref name=sc12-13>Scoble, pp. 12–13.</ref> They married in [[Kensington]] at Christmas 1878 when his mother was four months pregnant,<ref name=sc12-13/> returning to live in Deptford where Blythe grew up.<ref name=sm43-44>Smart, pp. 43–44.</ref>

The eldest of thirteen children, Blythe was educated at Duke Street School close to his home, leaving in April 1892 just before his thirteenth birthday.<ref name=sm43-44/> At the time, Deptford was an overcrowded, industrial area which was relatively deprived.{{efn|A parliamentary enquiry in 1887 identified Deptford as one of London's most deprived areas. When Blythe grew up, it had an unemployment rate of 32 per cent, although Blythe's father was a skilled workman and the family appears to have been rather better-off than many others in Deptford, able to afford violin lessons for Colin and, in later life, to help him buy his first house.<ref name=sc13>Scoble, p. 13.</ref><ref name=k8nov17>[http://www.kentcricket.co.uk/news/colin-blythe-1879-1917/ Colin Blythe 1879–1917], [[Kent County Cricket Club]], 8 November 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2019.</ref>}}<ref name=sc13/> The growing size of his family probably prompted him to leave school at the earliest age possible and he became an [[Apprenticeship|apprentice]] engineer fitter and turner alongside his father at the [[Royal Arsenal|Woolwich Arsenal]].<ref name=sm44>Smart, p. 44.</ref><ref name=sc14>Scoble, p. 14.</ref><ref name=lewis113>Lewis, p. 113.</ref> Blythe decided to study for a [[Whitworth Scholarship]], but the pressure proved too much for his health and a doctor recommended that fresh air would aid his recuperation.{{efn|Scoble suggests that this may have been the first major episode of [[epilepsy]] to have affected Blythe. He had the condition in later life and it appears to have been more prominent during times of stress.<ref name=sc14/><ref name=bates37>Bates, p. 37.</ref>}}<ref name=k8nov17/><ref name=sc14/>

Until this point, Blythe appears to have played few, if any, organised cricket matches. He may have played cricket and [[association football|football]] for boys clubs around [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] or for his school,<ref name=sm44/> but it appears that he did not bowl seriously before the age of 11 at the earliest. There is no evidence that he watched cricket until Saturday 17 July 1897 when Blythe, then aged 18, attended the third and final day of a county match between [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent]] and [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] at [[Rectory Field]], Blackheath, a ground relatively close to his home.<ref name=k8nov17/><ref name=sc14-15>Scoble, pp. 14–15.</ref><ref name=sm44-45>Smart, pp. 44–45.</ref> When he arrived there were very few spectators—Blythe recalled that "I don't think there were that many more spectators than players"—and one of the Kent team, [[Walter Wright (cricketer)|Walter Wright]], came to bat in the [[Cricket nets|nets]] and asked Blythe, as one of the few present, to bowl to him to give him some practice before play began.<ref name=bates35>Bates, p. 35.</ref> Blythe did so and was seen by [[William McCanlis]], a former Kent cricketer who acted as coach and advisor to the team. Impressed by Blythe's bowling action, McCanlis arranged for him to bowl to him on another day.<ref name=moore51>Moore, p. 51.</ref><ref name=sc16>Scoble, p. 16.</ref>

McCanlis described his discovery of Blythe as involving "a considerable amount of luck", Deptford not being an area usually considered when searching for new talent.<ref name=wis07mc>[[William McCanlis|McCanlis W]] (1907) '1906 – Blythe Blooms in Kentish Nursery' in Stern & Williams, p. 657. Reprinted from ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack]]'', 1907, pp. 96–98. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8dplAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA657 Available online]. Retrieved 1 January 2019.)</ref><ref name=ci1aug06>Haigh G (2006) [http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/255236.html Blythe's canvas immortality], [[CricInfo]], 1 August 2006. Retrieved 9 November 2017.</ref> Shortly after, Blythe bowled to McCanlis at the latter's local cricket club and impressed him sufficiently that he was recommended for a trial at the [[Tonbridge Nursery]] where promising young professional cricketers were trained with a view to joining the Kent team.{{efn|The Tonbridge Nursery was formed in 1897 at [[Angel Ground|Tonbridge Cricket Club]]. Kent's generally poor position in the newly-formed [[County Championship]] prompted the club committee to establish a training centre for young professionals. At the time, the club was heavily dependent on a set of gifted [[Amateur status in first-class cricket|amateur cricketers]] who could not play regularly but who displaced professionals when they could appear. This both affected the team's results when they were not available and discouraged professionals, who knew that they would not be guaranteed a chance to play, from joining Kent. The club hoped that the nursery would rectify these problems and improve Kent's performance in the Championship.<ref name=mq2-3>Moseling & Quarrington, pp. 2–3.</ref><ref name=sc18-19>Scoble, pp. 18–19.</ref>}}<ref name=sc17>Scoble, p. 17.</ref> Blythe was successful in the trial and was taken on at the nursery for the 1898 season;<ref name=wis07mc/> the trials book recorded the verdict: "Bowls slow left. Very useful bowler."<ref name=sc17/> Blythe remained at the family home and continued his engineering job over the winter of 1897–98, but rented lodgings in [[Tonbridge]] for the 1898 cricket season, a pattern which continued until he married in 1907.<ref name=dnb/><ref name=sc19>Scoble, p. 19.</ref><ref name=sc73>Scoble, p. 73.</ref>