The Twelfth Man 2011

18 difference because he’ll hit you in front.” Just as the skipper predicted, Bradman hit the next ball in front of square to the boundary. At the beginning of the 1955 season I was having more trouble with my feet, fielding for six hours was becoming nearly impossible, so the committee arranged for me to see a specialist. My worst fears were confirmed, “All I can do” said the specialist “is to bring you into hospital and break all the bones in both feet and do a complete remould. This would mean that you would be on your back for at least six weeks.” When he refused to guarantee the operation would be a success, I knew my cricketing career was at an end. Shortly afterwards I was speaking to Eric Stanger who was reporting a Yorkshire match for the The Yorkshire Post . He said he thought it would be good if I was invited to take the position of Senior Professional for the Yorkshire 2nd Eleven. He suggested it to Brian Sellers and I spent the rest of the season in that position. At the beginning of 1956 I was offered the permanent position of senior professional for Yorkshire 2nd Eleven which was probably due to this report that Ronnie Burnett sent to the committee at the end of the previous season: “In my general report I did not often mention the performance of Ted Lester, as I felt you would be more interested in those of younger players. I can not praise enough the good work that Ted does from every point of view in the 2nd Eleven apart from his splendid example as a player. His help and guidance to all the young players is of the greatest possible advantage.” During the Scarborough Cricket Festival I was having a drink with Yorkshire secretary, John Nash who said “When I get back to Leeds I have to find a scorer for the First team.” I never thought then the four words “I might be interested” would have such an influence on the rest of my life. I became the new Yorkshire scorer in November 1961. On 28 April 1962 I set out on my first scoring assignment for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. As I climbed the 60 or more steps to the scorers quarters at Lord’s, steps which seem to increase in numbers with the advancing years, I was completely ignorant as to what was in store for me, as I had not scored in any match before. I will always be grateful to the gentleman who was scoring for MCC, Archie Fowler had been a stalwart at Lord’s for many years as player, umpire, coach and scorer. He was admired and respected by the countless numbers of young players he had coached many of whom would come into the scorers quarters to pay their respects. He was an excellent scorer and I greatly appreciated the help he gave me during my three days at Lord’s. No apprentice ever received better training. Neither of us realised then, that I would go on to record more than 400,000 first-class runs and 75,000 in one-day cricket for Yorkshire. Scoring is one of the least glamorous jobs in cricket, although scorers are an integral part of the game. They are invariably ignored by sponsors who fail to realise that under Law 4 scorers have to be in attendance. They are sometimes criticised on the radio for getting the score wrong. There were two occasions during the 1984 Test Match at Headingley when the commentator inferred that “the scorers had got it wrong”. It was not their fault the unofficial scorer appointed by the BBC, had failed to detect a ‘short run’ signal or had thought that because the umpire had scratched his leg, he was giving a leg-bye. It would have made a refreshing change if once the true position had been established, the listening public had been told the truth instead of leaving them with the impression that the official scorers were incompetent. In spite of the odd grumble, I have thoroughly enjoyed my scoring career, watching great performances by great cricketers playing a great game and I know that there are many people who are envious of my being paid for watching cricket on almost every day of the cricket season. I retired from scoring in 1988. Norman Yardley and senior Pro, T.F.Smailes, give Ted his county cap at Huddersfield (12 May 1948) Surrey v Yorkshire at The Oval (3 July 1954) E.I.Lester 142