Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

80 Interlude Team photographs Although images drench our age, we do not read images as much as we might. Compare these two Yorkshire team photographs. As the one with Brian Sellers has a young Len Hutton, it must date from around 1935. The captain sat, as was typical, at the centre. The senior pro Herbert Sutcliffe was his right-hand man; and the support staff, Ringrose the scorer and Heyhirst the masseur, stood on the margins. Perhaps expressions and stances give clues into individual character; or perhaps we read into them what we think we know. Hutton as the youngest looks least at ease; Leyland, ‘pleasant and easy-going’ as Bowes described him. Was Bowes, holding his left wrist with his right hand, feeling for his pulse? Or bashful? We can try to read the ensemble too. Each of the men wore a blazer, buttoned up. Every man had his own space, no more or less. Whether the pose was by design or natural, these men look a well-drilled group. Back row (l to r): Ringrose, Robinson, Verity, Smailes, Turner, Hutton, Heyhirst. Seated; Barber, Bowes, Sutcliffe, Sellers, Leyland, Mitchell, Wood.