Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

Chapter Two Where it all began ‘Very soon he succeeded in taking the Champion’s wicket. The father of Briggs was told to take care of his son as he has all the qualities of making a good cricketer.’ Hornsea Gazette But the Johnny Briggs story was certainly not all doom and gloom – far from it. He brought joy to thousands of cricket fans both in this country and abroad, mainly in Australia, where he toured six times in the days when travelling across continents was far from easy. Briggs was a short, roly-poly figure of a man with a snub nose and a moustache which grew more luxuriant as he got older. He was only 5ft 5in tall, weighing 10st 6lb for most of his career although his weight did rise to 11st 6lb in his latter playing years, and because he was so short he was usually asked to sit cross-legged on the ground when pre-season team photographs were being taken. He was quickly given the nickname, ‘Boy’, which clung to him for much of his career. His physique, in fact, was a far cry from the 6ft-plus athletic cricketers of more recent years. Nevertheless, his stature and demeanour helped the ordinary spectator identify with him. He was a brilliantly nimble fielder, mainly at cover point, and an attacking right-handed batsman who made his runs quickly before he fully developed his left-arm slow bowling style, which on the largely untreated wickets of the day produced prodigious turn both ways. He also employed the quicker ball to good effect, as a well as a high-tossed slower ball which also brought him much success. The Briggs story began in the village of Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, a county where many great English cricketers were born. (See also Appendix Two). Sutton-in-Ashfield is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, being listed as a hamlet close to Mansfield. By the 1900s the population had grown to 8