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

140 Chapter Sixteen Seven more successful seasons in league cricket Morley 1967 Wakefield’s decision to dispense with Johnny’s services was greatly to be Morley’s good fortune. Johnny attracted more media attention there than perhaps at any time in his career from a local newspaper. He took on the role of being a big fish in a small pond as Morley at this time were in the second division of the Wakefield and District League though ambitious to gain promotion. A headline came pre-season in the local newspaper, the Morley Observer and News , “Lawrence is not deserting Morley”. It was commenting on Johnny’s accepting an invitation to play for Lincolnshire again. Johnny assures local fans that this will not interfere with his Saturday matches for Morley. It mentioned that he had signed for Morley shortly before Christmas. Johnny said: “I’ve not actually signed anything with Lincolnshire. It’s more of a gentleman’s agreement that I play as long as required. I have accepted this invitation to play for Lincolnshire for over nine years but I always give priority to the club with which I am playing.” The paper states that having seen the fixtures Johnny saw there were only two Saturdays that Lincolnshire would be playing and one of them was a Gillette Cup fixture which ran into the Sunday. Johnny stated: “… as I do not play Sunday cricket I shall not be playing in that match.” “I understand Morley is wanting a few runs this year, so this is the point I shall be mainly concentrating on.” The following week the paper expressed hopes that Morley would climb from the second division with the addition of Johnny to the bowling attack of Squire and Marwood