Lives in Cricket No 47 - Brian Sellers

94 Last seasons 1946-48 Championship, Yorkshire stood second to Lancashire, and the two would tie on points if Yorkshire won their two matches in hand. At halfway on the second day at Taunton Yorkshire were 149 for five in reply to Somerset’s 508. Sellers with 50 not out took Yorkshire to 272 for six at the close, and rain saved them on the last day. It showed how Sellers was relying on his leading three bowlers: without Bowes and Booth, Sellers only gave three men, Robinson, Smailes and Coxon, more than 11 overs as it took them 171.4 overs to dismiss Somerset. Sellers was becoming important with the bat. He and Hutton were the only men in double figures in Yorkshire’s first innings at The Oval. The final day began with Yorkshire on 26 for two, needing 112; Surrey let the crowd of a few hundred enter for free (and left out collection boxes). Bruce Harris of the London Evening Standard saw the overnight batsmen, the veterans Cyril Turner and Wilf Barber, take all morning and six minutes after lunch to win: ‘just as the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea, so the two Yorkshire indomitables finished at last a voyage in batsmanship,’ he wrote. Yorkshire were doing enough, to win. They began August by beating Northamptonshire easily enough by an innings. In that hugely popular match at Old Trafford, Yorkshire began the last day on 42 for two, still needing 174 to make Lancashire bat again. In the previous day’s Yorkshire Post , Kilburn reviewed the season so far, ‘a race between Lancashire and Yorkshire’. Had Kilburn worn spectacles, they would not have been rose- tinted. To suggest the 1946 Yorkshire side compared with many of the past ‘would be to invite ridicule’ he wrote: ‘there is neither the incisiveness in attack nor the overwhelming power in batting of a truly dominating force’. Hutton stood alone as batsman. Fast bowlers were suffering from not enough food. As for the captain: Sellers himself has several times been guardian of the gate and I should estimate that technically he has never been a better batsman than this season. Paralysis still tends to remain against spin bowling but against the quicker attack and when the ball is lifting uncomfortably his courage and determination have never been in doubt. That last day bore out Kilburn. Yorkshire batted all day, closing on 220 for five after 125 overs. Sellers and Leyland were unbeaten after a round century stand. Kilburn reported the twomen’s perfection in their appointed parts, ‘character parts of course. Without a mistake or even a real sign of one they played the overs away with their interest all on the pavilion clock and on the scoreboard only in so far as to be assured that numbers five and seven remained against the batsmen.’ For winning on first innings Lancashire took four points and Yorkshire none, but Yorkshire denied Lancashire the eight extra points for a win. Yorkshire could not quite win at Leicester. At Bradford against Warwickshire, rain meant a blank first two days. On a drying pitch Sellers declared on 104 for seven, and took eight points for a single innings win, as Warwickshire were out for 56. If Yorkshire had lost to Lancashire, and not beaten Warwickshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire would have shared the Championship. Yorkshire beat Hampshire at Scarborough where all 40