Famous Cricketers No 65 - Len Hutton

Early Days Leonard Hutton was born on June 23, 1916, a week before the Battle of the Somme, in Fulneck, a Moravian community near Leeds. It was very much a self-reliant, self-contained community which championed the Protestant work ethic and was home to a famous independent school where Herbert Asquith, the future Prime Minister, was a pupil. In this background were forged Len’s concentration, commitment, self-discipline and determination to make the best of his talents. His father was a skilled craftsman whose building business had not prospered after the 1914-18 war and he was forced to sell up and revert to being a joiner and bricklayer. His skills were passed on to Len who, after gaining qualifications, was employed by a building firm and was an enthusiastic woodworker, an interest he retained when an international cricketer. He was, in fact, responsible for some very impressive garden furniture in the Hutton household, a hobby he must have found to have therapeutic qualities after the strain of carrying England’s batting for so many years! From a very early age he had shown great promise as a cricketer, never losing the slightest opportunity to practise on a nearby field or concrete strip. Even then he had a seemingly impregnable defence as the other boys could never get him out. He tells in his early autobiography how he once batted for five consecutive nights, thus receiving early training for the Oval in August 1938! His father, Henry, had been a very keen club cricketer and it was only natural that he should join his brothers Edmund, George and Reginald at Pudsey St.Lawrence at an early age. He made his second team debut in 1927 at the age of 11 and his first appearance for the first eleven was only two years later at the tender age of 13. Whilst in his early teens he was opening the innings with the old Yorkshire player, Edgar Oldroyd. At first Oldroyd, the club professional, was a little put out at being partnered by such an inexperienced youngster, but he quickly recognised the potential of the boy and gave him great help which was particularly invaluable in that in his Yorkshire days he had been an acknowledged master at batting on rain-affected pitches. The great Herbert Sutcliffe was a resident of Pudsey and it was not long before he came to hear of this talented young man on his doorstep. He had encouraged him to go to the winter nets at Headingley where he would be under the watchful eye of the kindly George Hirst, one of the county’s greatest cricketing sons. In the early days of 1930 at the age of 13 Len was carefully watched and his outstanding talent was immediately noticed. Other Yorkshire players watched and realised that the county had found a potential England player, let alone Yorkshire. Later that year he went to the Headingley Test when he saw Bradman score over 300 in a day, a sight which inspired him even more to become a cricketer. August 1938 saw him eclipse Bradman’s record Ashes score of 334 with his marathon 364. Yorkshire had been watching his progress very carefully from his early days at the nets and had been particularly impressed with an innings of 108* v Bradford in the Priestley Cup which had led to a one-wicket victory. He had been on the field for a total of seven hours and had thus shown evidence of his stamina as well as his skill. It was clearly only a matter of time before he was called up by the county and at the age of 16 he made his debut at Halifax for Yorkshire II v Cheshire. Unfortunately he “failed to trouble the scorers”, an experience he repeated in his next innings v Lancashire II. However, after watching his future England opening partner Cyril Washbrook score 202* he did manage to open his account with 41*. He scored his first hundred for the county in the match again Denbighshire at Rydal College and followed up with another in the next game at Crewe against Cheshire. He could have made it three in a row when playing Staffordshire at Bramall Lane but rain intervened when he was going well on 69. In this game he played against the legendary Sidney Barnes who was 62 but still gave young Len much to think about. He went from strength to strength, finishing the season with 699 runs at an average of 69.9, a considerable feat for a 16/17 year-old. Wisden was rather restrained in its praise merely noting 5