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

137 “Ron Beeson was a damned good wicket keeper and Johnny made him a better ‘keeper. I did used to discuss Johnny’s bowling with Ron, as we both watched his hand. Johnny had told us that he wasn’t going to give any pre-ordained signals – we did need to learn to pick his bowling from the hand. “He was the best of all the pros who were at Lincolnshire at different times although later on Don Wilson was also someone quite special.” Lincolnshire’s improvement over a period was marked by their best season for some time in 1965 when they achieved seven wins and finished the season strongly. Yet all this was eclipsed by the totally magnificent season of 1966. Martin Maslin commented: “Johnny was more than instrumental in us winning the Minor Counties Championship in 1966 – his last full season for the county [and also his benefit season]. As I remember it we had made a consistent improvement from being an indifferent team after he joined us. But we had a fantastic season. I think, we won nine out of 12 matches which were all two day matches (mostly Wednesdays and Thursdays) in those days and it was thanks largely to having Johnny in the side – along with Norman McVicker who went on to play for Warwickshire and Leicestershire – that we were able to bowl teams out twice which was an incredibly difficult feat ... “Also, Lincolnshire had never previously qualified for a Gillette Cup match from its inception in 1963 until that year 1966!” Maslin himself was a star in that championship-winning side – as one of the best batsmen in the country never to play for a first-class county. I’m told that Johnny must have influenced his long-standing friend from the Bingley days and once again his colleague in league cricket Vic Wilson, now at Wakefield, to join Lincolnshire in 1964. Wilson and West Indian Test player Ivan Madray and Brian (J.B or ‘Ginger’) Evans who had finished as fast-ish bowler at Glamorgan in 1963 through injury were others The Lincolnshire link – a further decade in a different form of county cricket