The Twelfth Man 2018

22 Mark Rowe MARK Rowe made his second visit to the Society in November. Last time he talked about his book on the Test at Bramall Lane. This time he talked about his latest book ‘Brian Sellers Yorkshire Tyrant’. Mark went on to give us an extraordinary background into the book,and the man himself, starting at the beginning of Brian Sellers career. Sellers made his debut in 1932, and during his playing and later captaincy, he played with many notables including Herbert Sutcliffe, Hedley Verity, Bill Bowes, Norman Yardley and Sir Leonard Hutton to name a few. Mark then read out a few extracts from his book, one of which mentioned Brian’s father who played for YCCC as an amateur, was a successful business man in engineering and became chairman of the YCCC Committee. The book also highlights the achievements of Sellers the captain who led the side to championship either side of World War Two. To give an idea of his on-pitch captaincy Bowes, called him a slave driver who got results and then enjoyed a drink with his boys. After his playing days were over Sellers went on to officialdom within the club, eventually becoming the Cricket Chairman. Mark went through the many bust-ups involving Sellers resulting in the club losing some very high profile players (Brian Close and Ray Illingworth to name a couple). These departures caused much consternation amongst the members resulting in Sellers stepping down. The Q & A session proved lively and ended a fine evening. Michael William Gatting OBE Michael William Gatting OBE born 6th June 1957 in Kingsbury, England is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex (1975-1998 ; captain 1983-1997) and for England from 1997 to 1995, captaining the national side in 23 Test Matches between 1986 and 1998. He toured South Africa as captain of the rebel tour party in 1990. He is currently a co-opted member of the Middlesex C.C.C. Executive Board and an elected member of the M.C.C. Committee. He has previously served as the ECB managing director of Cricket Partnerships and President of Marylebone Cricket Club. Cricket writer Colin Bateman has stated that “talk of Gatting the batsman always evokes adjectives such as pugnacious, bold, brave and belligerent!!” Mike’s record as county player, England player and captain is up there with the best and he began our second afternoon meeting with a very amusing and interesting intro. Which included his present role with the E.C.B. as Partition and Growth Co-ordinator. This sees him helping clubs and leagues develop young cricketers and also brings about and supports systems such as the All Stars programmes to help kids from a young age get into the game. Mike also gave us a background into his long and varied career as a professional cricketer which included endless anecdotes and stories about his England days and the fantastic characters he played with. The question and answer session was probably one of the longest in the society’s history with a He ended his talk with an uplifting story about Ben Stokes spending a lot of time at his old village cricket club, Cockermouth CCC, after the floods to get the club back on its feet. The question and answer session took us well into overtime to conclude a fascinating evening. Functions secretary Ron Firth (left) with Mike Gatting