Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

27 The line that disciplines the fell Sellers’ son Andrew recalled his father as a good and keen golfer: ‘Taught me a lot of ways of how to play golf without cheating [chuckles].’ In March 1947, Sellers returned from Australia, where he had covered the MCC tour for a Yorkshire newspaper, with a new set of golf clubs. In July 1932 the Nottingham Evening News picked up that Sellers was among Yorkshire players on the Rushcliffe links from 10am until late on the Sunday. Sellers had a handicap of one: He possesses exactly the right physique for the game being tall and lithe. He hits a tremendously long ball from the tee and is exceptionally good through the greens. Yesterday he drove the second and 16 th greens which measure 230 yards and 338 yards respectively. By 1938, Sellers’ handicap was two, still far lower than most of the Yorkshire cricketers who played an annual autumn match against golf professionals of the county. The lifelong cricket man, Sir Henry Leveson- Gower, gave a cup that amateur golfers played for on the Sunday of the Scarborough Festival at nearby Ganton golf club. In his memoir, On and Off the Field , Sir Henry thanked Sellers for getting up teams: ‘It isn’t a very easy job for him but it has made all the difference, for very many people come and play for him.’ Who would not want an invitation from Sellers, the man of success, who liked to talk over a pint? In sport, as in politics and in life, many want to pretend in public that everyone in their team, or party, or country, is happy and of one mind. To his credit Sellers was more honest (‘get it off your chest and bear no malice’). Eleven or more men, in each other’s company only because they came from the same county and were good at the same thing, were never going to see eye to eye always; and even if they did, they might grow sick of the same faces. From looking at five of Sellers’ team – a mix of old and young, batsmen and bowlers, senior and junior – we can go deeper than the surface jollity of golf and beery banter, and seek truths about Sellers’ leadership. Herbert Sutcliffe In later life, Sellers remembered Sutcliffe’s nickname, revealingly, was ‘The Mayor’: …. he was the greatest Yorkshire batsman of my time and he was Herbert Sutcliffe; but even he would come in and analyse his failure. I remember Maurice Leyland’s benefit against Notts, Larwood bowled The Mayor with a straight full-toss that sent his wickets cart-wheeling. ‘Oh Christ,’ I thought, ‘we’re for it now,’ as Herbert came in. But Herbert said: ‘I can’t understand it – I should never have got out – if ever there was a six on the cord! Why I missed it I shall never know.’ You see Herbert was very critical of his own performance. That story – from Saturday, June 30, 1934, at Headingley – neatly sums up Sutcliffe and his place in the Yorkshire dressing room. He was Herbert Sutcliffe ; Sellers did not need to spell out his feats as England opener with