Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

50 bat. Lancashire left-arm spinner Jack Iddon was soon bowling over the wicket into rough made by the opening bowler Frank Hodgson’s boots. The patch made the ball do such strange things, Lancashire’s captain Peter Eckersley left the field to suggest to Sellers that left-arm bowlers should only bowl around the wicket from the Stretford end. Sellers reportedly thanked Eckersley for the thought, but preferred that both sides should take their chance. Yorkshire ended the first day on 287 for five; ‘the worst day’s cricket I have ever seen’, thundered ‘Cricketer’, Neville Cardus, in the Manchester Guardian . He only showed his ignorance of howwell Yorkshire batted despite the rough (and Cardus said nothing about Eckersley’s extraordinary offer, although as a critic he had plenty to say about a novel broadcast of music over loudspeakers). Sellers’ 31 proved to be the third highest score of Yorkshire’s 341, and indeed the match; for Macaulay and Verity spun out Lancashire for 93 and 92. Sellers gave another clue to his views before the 1937 end of season challenge match. Robins suggested a covered pitch. Sellers objected: ‘On principle Yorkshire never cover wickets. They give the bowlers a chance.’ In truth – as at Old Trafford in 1933 – Sellers meant uncovered wickets gave his two outstanding bowlers, Bowes and Verity, the better chance. Besides the policies ruling the game, and the tactics during matches, Sellers enforced manners. As in other ways, Sellers could seem tyrannical to newcomers, and cast a shadow long after his time, yet Sellers was only applying a discipline – to himself and others - that men before him had set and willingly followed. In a 1951 article, Leyland urged Yorkshire cricketers to excel in the field: ‘Try to keep an eye on the captain and obey him always (he has the responsibility).’ As a sign of how long Sellers’ reputation lingered, in his 2013 memoir to mark his 80 th birthday the umpire (and 1950s hopeful Yorkshire opener) Dickie Bird told a story about Arthur Booth, the left-arm spinner second to Verity in the 1930s (and who played alongside Sellers in the Yorkshire Second Eleven in 1931), who aged 43 became a main part of the Championship-winning side of 1946. Arthur was stood talking to the crowd, hands in his pockets, while fielding on the edge of the boundary at Headingley, when one wag said to him: ‘Better look out Arthur, he’s watching thee, tha knows.’ ‘Who’s watching me?’ ‘Sellers, who else,’ came the reply. Arthur felt in his pocket, brought out a handkerchief and started blowing his nose. He then put it back in his pocket. At the end of the over, as he walked round the boundary edge, Sellers came up to him and said: ‘It’s a good job you had a handkerchief in your pocket, Arthur.’ Never missed a trick, Mr Sellers. On the field Middlesex and England captain Walter Robins.