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

107 always expected to be short and the benefit would come towards the end of that relatively short time. We have to take ourselves back to the 1950s to realise what a big deal Sabbath observance was to the traditionally religiously-minded folk of the day. Sport, especially professional sport, was thought to spoil the quiet decorum of a peacefully observed day. Johnny expressed his views to the Rev William J. Smart of the Methodist Recorder in the summer of 1954: “My main reason is that I am a Christian and I believe that Sunday sport is harmful to the Christian life of this country. If you have cricket on Sunday, the youngsters are bound to want to go and see it and that would be a counter attraction to Sunday School. I know that my life has been largely moulded by going to Sunday School as a boy, and I don’t want to do anything that I wouldn’t like boys to copy. “I’m not a kill-joy. I love every minute of a game of cricket. A first class career with Somerset Somerset against Middlesex at Lord's, May 1954. Back, left to right: Jim Hilton, John McMahon, Geoff Lomax, Peter Wight, Dave Kitson, Roy Smith, Yawar Saeed. Front: Maurice Tremlett, Johnny Lawrence, Ben Brocklehurst, Harold Stephenson, Les Angell.