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

152 Place and Jack Iddon from Lancashire, West Indian opening bowlers Constantine and Martindale and Johnny Lawrence besides the Genders brothers and C.K. Harrison who had played for Yorkshire Seconds between 1925 and 1935 all among 13 players from which Roy Genders’ eleven would be picked. George Hirst and Emmott Robinson were the umpires. Then we find a scorecard on Cricket Archive partly incomplete as there are no bowling figures for a similar match a year later. There was no Hutton but there was Denis Compton and Frank Woolley playing for the Collegiates with George Pope, Ellis Robinson and Cyril Turner. Johnny took four wickets and with the help of Constantine and Martindale and one wicket from W. Andrews – presumably Bill Andrews of Somerset, Collegiate were all out for 103. Walter Keeton the Nottinghamshire opener and J White each scored 20 odd, Eddie Paynter 50, and Constantine blasted 68 in 15 minutes with seven fours and five sixes as Genders XI batted on after winning and reached 245 for six by the close without the likes of Johnny Lawrence and George Duckworth, the Lancashire and England wicketkeeper, being required to bat. He would often take a team to Arthington – sometimes on three successive post-season Saturdays to play against the local side and his family and friends were often involved. Frank Lowson formerly of Yorkshire often guested for Arthington. The end of season tradition at Arthington not only still exists today but has now been formalised into the Arthington Festival. Another venue was Woodhouse Grange, a ground in the countryside not far from the village of Elvington east of York. Robin Lawrence believes that these friendlies date back to the Second World War. Johnny’s friendship with the farmer Tommy Hobson was instrumental in setting up these matches. Otterburn Hall, Northumberland was a venue which as we shall see Johnny did some coaching in August each year from 1956 and at the end of this time a match would be played by Johnny’s team with his tutees and a local eleven Johnny in Friendly Cricket