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

156 logs to see it. “Mostly the wives of enthusiasts, they had gone to see a freak – a cricket match in the heart of winter. They cherished secret hopes of seeing icicles hang from the wickets, batsmen retire frost-bitten and a heavy snow plough used between the innings. “Instead they saw a perfectly normal match played in conditions a good deal more pleasant than those provided at many a summer fixture. “The sun gleamed on the players’ flannels, the bowlers took their sweaters off, and not even the umpires looked cold. “It was as if the Clerk of the Weather had arranged it specially. “’Cricket match on Boxing Day’ he must have said ‘Some people will think it is a joke. A joke about cricket! Never!’ “But the non-cricket enthusiasts were only a small proportion of the 200-odd spectators. Most of them were the men one sees patrolling in front of the new stand at Headingley. The sort of people who would gladly travel to Two phenomena Council of elders: the toss in a match involving Johnny and Haslingden, 1956.