Not yet qualified, Prentice had made his first-class debut in Leicestershire's match against Oxford University in 1934, batting at No 7 in the first innings, when he made 39, but opening in the second innings [REF].
The move to open the innings was an immediate success: in 1937, Prentice scored 1506 runs at an average of 32.73 and of his opening partnership with Les Berry Wisden wrote that "with the exception perhaps of Yorkshire and Sussex no other county possessed such consistent opening batsmen" [REF].