The Twelfth Man 2016

29 in his second year, 101 in his third, and was captain for his final year. He made his Yorkshire debut in 1936 and played for the county until 1955, when he retired. He made his Test match debut against South Africa in 1939 and after the Second World War was chosen as vice-captain to Wally Hammond on the 1946/47 tour of Australia where he captained England in the Fifth Test. He followed Hammond as skipper in 1947 and captained England intermittently until 1950 when his business commitments allowed. In 1948 he succeeded to the Yorkshire leadership when Brian Sellers resigned. Yardley remained in the position until 1955, during a time when Yorkshire had several difficult players in their dressing room. Under Yardley, Yorkshire were joint Champions in 1949, but too often for the liking of supporters, finished second to Surrey in the County Championship. He served as a Test match selector between 1951 and 1954, acting as chairman of selectors in 1952. He was President of Yorkshire CCC from 1982 to 1984, when he resigned after becoming involved in controversy over the decision to release Geoffrey Boycott in 1983. He died after a stroke in 1989. Martin informed us that his book was written in straight narrative and he outlined Yardley’s career as above and continued with other interesting background information. He informed us that Yardley’s grandad was a pit boy at nine and left the pit to start a grocery business in adulthood. Norman’s father carried on the successful business to give Norman a privileged upbringing living in a large house at Royston near Barnsley and he also captained the village cricket club. Norman eventually went to a private school in York where his cricket began to thrive. Cricket with YCCC followed where he scored 6,000 plus runs prior to World War Two and also made his England debut. Norman was de-mobbed in 1946 after military service (with Hedley Verity) into a different world. The 1946/47 series in Australia beckoned which lead to him being captain in the last Test of the series. On and off captainships followed for England plus captainship of Yorkshire in 1948. Unfortunately, Surrey spoiled his party as Yorkshire captain, pushing them into second place too often for Norman’s liking. After cricket he went into business with William Harrisons Paint Company (later Johnsons), Norman carried on with being a selector and later President of YCCC. The question and answer session proved very lively to conclude an excellent evening. 18 February – Brian Scovell Our Chairman introduced Brian as follows: “Brian’s Media Centre friend, Derek Hodgson, a former President of the Cricket Writers’ Club, the position held by David Warner today, used to claim that he held the record for the number of speaker visits to Wombwell with eight. Other speakers have contested this, but to his shame this is only the second visit of our special guest tonight, Brian Scovell.” Brian, who has written two books with the Society’s and Yorkshire’s President ‘Dickie’ Bird, has visited Wombwell once before, 50 years ago, as recorded by the 1967 edition of The Twelfth Man . Brian was a sports columnist for the Daily Mail and the former Daily Sketch for 40 years, but he has also written 26 books, giving the insight into a vast number of outstanding cricketers, including Brian Lara, Garry Sobers, Jim Laker, Len Hutton, Freddie Trueman, ‘Dickie’ Bird, Denis Compton, Keith Miller and others including the late Princess of Wales, Prince Charles, Kerry Packer, Enoch Powell and Baroness Margaret Thatcher, with whom he worked. He has probably reported on more Test matches and more International football matches than any other English sports writer. “I first read a book by Brian in 1966 after England’s failure against the rampant West Indies of Sir Garfield Sobers, but redeemed at The Oval by the revamped team of Brian Close.” Brian gave us an overview of his cricket Ali Saad presents a Wombwell glass to guest Brian Scovell