Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Year Book 2014

23 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Ted Wainwright (outstanding all-rounder and run out for 126 in this match) Bobby Peel (hit an unbeaten 210 in this match and was one of the long line of distinguished Yorkshire left-arm spinners. A headstone was erected upon his previously unmarked grave at Morley last October) Frank Milligan (an exciting and brilliant all-rounder who was killed in the Relief of Mafeking in the Boer War at the age of 30) Lord Hawke (no mug with the bat himself and he contributed 166 in the Warwickshire match) George Hirst (scored 85 batting at No 10 against Warwickshire and was one of cricket’s greatest all- rounders - along with Wilfred Rhodes who would enter Hawke’s team a couple of years later. David Hunter (a great wicketkeeper who still holds the record number of dismissals behind the stumps for Yorkshire. Surely this side would function smoothly whoever was in charge but it must be remembered that it was Hawke who fashioned the team and it took him ten years to turn a pretty ragbag outfit into one which brought lasting pride to Yorkshire cricket. And he looked after his men and cared for them very much in the way that Sir Titus Salt looked after and provided for his mill-workers at Saltaire which was named after the great industrialist. Sellers, too, had a great bunch of cricketers to call upon and because their names are so well known I don’t need to describe in detail the squad which helped him claim the Championship title in 1938 with 20 wins from 28 Championship matches. It was made up, in the main, from: • Len Hutton • Maurice Leyland • Herbert Sutcliffe • Paul Gibb • Arthur Mitchell • Cyril Turner • Brian Sellers • Frank Smailes • Harry Halliday • Norman Yardley • Arthur Wood • Ellis Robinson • Hedley Verity • Bill Bowes Sellers was the biggest disciplinarian of the three and perhaps not quite in the same class as a player as either Hawke or Close. He tolerated no funny business and was feared and respected in equal measure. I am pretty certain that the most loved of the three captains by his team- mates was Close who was quite fearless, put the team beyond everything else and managed to be revered and respected while still remaining one of the boys - which is something which very few can achieve. But here again, look at the men around him for the 1967 season which was the middle of three consecutive Championship wins: • Geoffrey Boycott • Philip Sharpe • Doug Padgett • John Hampshire • Ken Taylor • Brian Close, • Raymond Illingworth • Richard Hutton • Jimmy Binks • Don Wilson • Fred Trueman • Tony Nicholson • Chris Old • Chris Balderstone • Peter Stringer • Geoff Cope Hardly a bunch of amateurs, are they? - with 14 of the 16 either already having represented their country at Test level or going on to do so. And many a strong-minded character mixed among them, but none that Close found too hot to handle. So, great captains or just great teams? I think we will have to settle for both. *David Warner is the author of The Sweetest Rose: 150 Years of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Copies can be obtained by contacting him on david-warner@sky.com www.sheffieldcricketlovers.org.uk