Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

6 brought him two fours without any effort at all.’ Two more wickets fell and Sellers declared, himself 18 not out, and Yorkshire 229 for six. George Macaulay and Hedley Verity opened the bowling, and Maurice Leyland took over from Verity. The event came before Leyland took the first wicket, well caught wide on the leg side by wicket-keeper Arthur Wood, from the last ball before lunch. It came before or after Arthur Mitchell was twice hit when fielding close, ‘the second blow being above the knee of the leg which was so badly damaged last season. He went off for attention by Bright Heyhirst, the Leeds rugby league club trainer,’ the Yorkshire Evening News told readers that night. So far, so usual for Yorkshire, whose aggressive bowling and fielding – though dangerous – were already proving too much for the students. Brian Sellers, on his debut for the first team, had already had to wait hours before he could do a thing. Unexpectedly and suddenly, he faced what he later called ‘the only nasty moment I ever had as skipper’: It was a lovely day, very hot. George Macaulay opened the bowling very well. At the end of his sixth or seventh over he put his sweater on and I saw that and I thought, ‘Hello, there’s something going on here.’ At the end of the following over Mac said, ‘Where do you want me to field, skipper?’ I said I didn’t realise I’d asked you to end your spell – there’s only one gaffer here and you’ll carry on until luncheon for a two-hour spell if you drop down.’ This worried me all morning. What do I do? I thought, well, better the day, better the deed. In the dressing room after lunch I told them all, ‘Mac tried to take a rise out of me. I’m a rookie and I’m relying on you, but my decision is final. I know I’m not in the same class as you as a batter or bowler – my dad has made that clear to me – he says I shouldn’t be associated with you, that I shouldn’t be spoken in the same breath as you. But I can hold my place in the field with any of you. And you Mac,’ I said to George Macaulay, ‘you’re being clever. You’re taking a rise out of me – and I tell you what – you’ve bowled all bloody morning and you’re starting again after lunch. And he did. Never any trouble. A couple of details are, frankly, inaccurate. If that early May day did turn hot, that was probably only later in the afternoon. Sellers gave the impression that Yorkshire were in the field all morning, making it more of a punishment to keep Macaulay bowling. In fact Sellers had left Oxford 40 minutes’ batting before lunch. None of the reports suggested Macaulay bowled for a strangely long time, though he did bowl the most overs – 18 – of anyone in Oxford’s 56-over first innings. By contrast in the second, Macaulay bowled least of the five bowlers. While our memories can trick us, Macaulay – ‘an awkward so-and-so’, in the words of sketch-writer and later Yorkshire MP J.P.W.Mallalieu – had evidently tried to treat Sellers as captain in name only. Sellers had seen it and stamped on it. Not long before Oxford were all out 74 behind, Sellers made a run-out thanks to what the Yorkshire Post called a ‘fine throw from extra cover’. Yorkshire closed the second day on 100 for six. Sellers had promoted himself only to be leg before to Owen-Smith for one. The Friday, the final Oxford, May 1932