Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

39 On the field in front of the pavilion called first for their own captain, then Sellers, who came out and ‘waved cheerily, showing that he could take defeat as well as victory’. Sellers, and his men, would also acknowledge good play by the other side. At Leicester in August 1946 Sellers drove straight and hard, only for Tony Riddington to take a one-handed caught and bowled. Sellers tapped his bat to applaud. He clapped with the crowd, whether for a single good shot, such as an off-drive for four by Maurice Tompkin at Leicester in August 1938, or a century that was holding up the win, such as by the Yorkshireman Norman Kilner for Warwickshire at Edgbaston in June 1933. The most obvious example of how Sellers, his team and the followers of Yorkshire felt alike came at Bramall Lane in August 1946. Sellers had claimed the last half hour only for Middlesex’s ninth wicket pair to hold out. At the end the crowd of 5500 cheered and the fielders clapped the unbeaten batsmen to the pavilion. And Sellers appreciated the achievements of rivals. When Yorkshire looked like losing at Lord’s in July 1938, Sellers was batting when Jim Smith took his 100 th wicket of the season. As the Middlesex fielders crowded around to congratulate, Sellers too gave Smith a handshake. That did not mean Yorkshire were easy-going. That Stourbridge crowd in 1936 ‘chipped’ Sellers in the field as Worcestershire hit 11 sixes in their first innings of an hour and a half and less than 30 overs. Sellers smiled back and said: ‘Aye and we shall have a few.’ Sussex’s ten wicket win at Hull in June 1933 appeared to end simply – the openers Ted Bowley and John Langridge made 17. In fact, the Yorkshire Post reported, the batsmen breathed a sigh of relief, as Macaulay and Verity made them work. Such was ‘Yorkshire hardness’. Jim Kilburn, who as he put it in his 1972 book Thanks to Cricket ‘joined’ the Yorkshire team in 1934 ‘as an observer’, took care to define it. If to others the players looked aggressive, they were only playing to the best of their ability. They enjoyed being excellent. Others could not see this. At Cambridge in May 1934, after Cambridge took most of the first day to be all out for 248, Yorkshire made 495 for eight by the end of the second day. The Cambridge News reporter saw a ‘deadly seriousness’ in how Yorkshire played the students: After tea with the score on 400 they were playing just as if they were starting the innings. Some of the Counties which visit Cambridge finding themselves in the position which Yorkshire occupied in the middle of the afternoon and finding how completely they had ‘collared’ the Light Blue bowling would have changed their tactics. They would have what is called entered into the spirit of the game and tried to liven things up for the benefit of the crowd. Not so Yorkshire. Their outlook is different and they continued to play ‘according to the book’. Sellers, who ended on 52 not out, was batting at that time. ‘Nobody can blame them for this,’ the Cambridge reporter added. As it happened, Sellers declared overnight with perfect timing, as Cambridge left Yorkshire 14 to win. Some did find fault, including the Cambridge News , in May 1936. After their first innings, Cambridge could have followed on, early on the third