During 1925, Kilner was awarded a benefit match and had an improved batting record for the season but critics began to notice a decline in his bowling. He was effective on pitches which favoured spin bowlers, but not on the flatter pitches prevalent in the dry summer of 1925. Cricket journals, such as "The Cricketer", criticised his tendency to bowl leg theory—a tactic regarded as negative and overly defensive—when confronted with batting-friendly conditions. He took 131 wickets at 17.92, finishing second in the Yorkshire averages and helping his team to their fourth successive County Championship. He scored 1,068 runs at an average of 30.51 with two centuries. This gave him the third double of his career. Kilner's popularity with the crowds peaked in 1925, when over three days, 71,000 people attended his benefit match against Middlesex. It raised £4,106 (the equivalent of around £175,000 in 2008), to set a new record for benefit proceeds. There were no Test matches in 1925, but Kilner was once again selected for the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's, scoring 59 in his only innings and taking five wickets in the match, as well as some end of season matches for the MCC's team from the previous winter.