The Twelfth Man 2016

17 functioning after the financial crisis of 2006 and in the long months that followed. James brings to the Chairman’s job a fine presence on stage, a deep understanding of Wombwell Cricket Lovers’ history and its people, a great knowledge of Yorkshire cricket, now and from the past, and a tremendous recall of the game’s history and its players.” I wish to endorse every word of that and would add that James is not only a talker about cricket but in his halcyon days was also a “doer” actually on the field of play. A batsman with Kirkstall – Headingley’s not the only significant ground in that area – one of his finest moments came for the second team against Colton in the Hemingway Cup in 1975. Batting at No.3, James was still padding up when a wicket went down in the first over and he arrived breathless at the crease (I am using a bit of journalistic licence here)! At any rate he went on to plunder an unbeaten 125, hitting the ball to all parts of the ground. It turned out to be the highest individual score of the season in a Leeds League second team match and at the end of the summer he received the same engraved cup which Horace Fisher, the man who once claimed an all-lbw hat-trick for Yorkshire, had been awarded in 1928. So there you are, a man for all seasons, and a most worthy winner of this prestigious award. Tribute to James Greenfield given by Yorkshire CCC Yearbook Editor and President of the Cricket Writers’ Club, David Warner, at the 2015 WCLS Christmas Sunday lunch Photo: Wombwell Chairman, James Greenfield, receives the EH Umbers award for Services to Yorkshire Cricket from David Warner at the Society’s 2015 Christmas lunch