Lives in Cricket No 52 - Schooled in Cricket (2nd edition)

104 remainder of the Bath festival. This was all in 14 days from June 3 to the 16. Yet the two wins were the only wins in the season. Though winning matches was never quite so crucial to the ethos of Somerset cricket as in Johnny’s native Yorkshire, no team likes to lose repeatedly and finishing bottom for two years running caused quite a stir in close-season deliberations – somewhat akin to the kind of strife we find in Yorkshire in the 1970s and 1880s. It is a great compliment to Johnny that there was – as David Foot says – a “quite formidable contingent that came down from Yorkshire in that tentative post-war period”, most if not all of whom had attended Johnny’s nets at Rothwell. But these were mainly – with the exception of the young Graham Atkinson – from the second and third string of Yorkshire’s top players and ultimately they were no substitute for Somerset developing its own talent – or for the county spending what money it did have to engage proven talent. Johnny would have been at home with nets and family A first class career with Somerset Surrounded! Johnny signs autographs for young Somerset fans, possibly at Bath.