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

109 raised. At this time in his career Johnny would not play Sunday matches of any nature. He did relent later on in life and play sometimes in Sunday friendlies which were not remunerated and in cup ties for Honley. He told his son Stephen that though this issue had been so important to him at the time he later came to feel that there were more important points of principle and of his faith than the Sunday issue. Perhaps this was because it was a battle that was eventually lost, despite his highly applauded stand. Professional Sunday cricket would from being virtually non-existent become the norm and include county and Test matches. Johnny felt that times were changing but that faith and principle would and should remain vitally important. His benefit realised in the end £3,548. Stephen Chalke writing about the benefit system in his essay ‘Counting the Pennies’ compares this with Bertie Buse whose popularity and many years of service earned him £2,814 and Horace Hazell who was less lucky. Chalke writes with poignant irony about Hazell: “Perhaps he would have done better if he had curried favour with the Church Times – or said his prayers.” Yes, indeed this reflects a sad irony of an unfair world but no-one begrudged those like Johnny who – however they achieved it – got a more deserved total. For his benefit match, Lawrence had chosen the match against Surrey – the County Champions since 1952 and the strongest and most cohesive unit of the day. The match was played at the County Ground, Taunton on May 22, 24 and 25 and as Wisden pointed out “the weather intervened on all three days and ruined [the] … match. As receipts amounted to only £300, Somerset decided to meet all expenses.” In the play that did happen, Johnny took four wickets rather expensively for 81 runs and scored only 16 before he succumbed to that great off-spin bowler Jim Laker who had earlier been one of those four victims. This was the same Jim Laker who had practised in Johnny’s school as a young man in 1946. A first class career with Somerset