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

167 encouraging and a complete natural. He wouldn’t necessarily have seen those who came to him as his proteges and certainly in no way claimed to own their skills but he advanced so many cricketing careers so greatly that it is a convenient short cut to regard some players as his proteges. Geoff Boycott describes him as ‘my mentor and life long friend’, Graham Atkinson of Somerset and Lancashire describes him as ‘my coach and mentor’, and he fulfilled a similar role in the lives of countless young cricket- playing devotees of a whole range of abilities and different personalities over so many generations. He coached several other players who achieved Test status such as Don Wilson, Jack Birkenshaw and later Steven Rhodes. He influenced other first-class cricketers such as Harold (Dickie) Bird who wasn’t good enough for Yorkshire – omitted from the team immediately after scoring 181 not out versus Glamorgan, Des Barrick of Northamptonshire, Lewis Pickles and Gerry Tordoff of Somerset; and Andrew Dalton, Phil Carrick, Jim Love, Kevin Sharp, Tim Boon, Neil Hartley and Ashley Metcalfe of Yorkshire. He advanced the careers of players A coach and those he influenced Johnny watches at Lordswood as Ken Cooper from the BBC operates this early model of a bowling machine.