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

147 promotion. The Huddersfield Weekly Examiner of July 17 was moved to comment: “Johnny Lawrence is making a bold attempt to take Honley into Section “A” in his first season there as a professional.” “Johnny Lawrence enjoyed himself at the expense of the Linthwaite batsmen [on July 17] who could make nothing of this unorthodox bowler. Lawrence had figures of seven for 32 as Linthwaite were put out for 60.” This was the second year running that Linthwaite were particularly sorry victims of Johnny’s magic. Honley finished the season strongly and were only pipped to the second division championship by their worse run rate than Hall Bower. Still, for the second year running, first with Dalton and now with Honley, Johnny (and Miles) had helped their sides gain promotion in the Huddersfield League. At some point near and prior to this time Johnny had relaxed his stance on not playing Sundays. In 1972 we find him playing in the odd Sykes Cup tie on a Sunday and we can assume that as he was paid a fixed fee for the season he received no extra remuneration for doing so. The cup semi-final of 1972 versus Primrose Hill took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, July 4 and 5. He captained the team well and seemed to know the right moment to bring himself on. He took four for 17 and from 97 for three, the Hill collapsed to 118 for nine at the end of their innings. He then opened the batting and though being involved in two run outs, top scored with 59 and saw his side home by six wickets. It was at Fartown, Huddersfield where Honley took on Hall Bower in the Sykes Cup Final on the sixth of August 1972. It was a rain-affected match which spanned the Sunday and the evenings of the Monday and Tuesday. Honley lost the match. As a team they probably weren’t quite good enough as they relied all too heavily on Johnny’s skills and Hall Bower provided two outstanding individual efforts. Barry Robertshaw’s 88 not out was described as a magnificent performance which ‘more than compensated for his first Seven more successful seasons in league cricket