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

169 holiday they had together. Otterburn Hall was run by a Quaker family, the Bells. Johnny had become friendly with Ralph (or Ralf?) Bell. The place was a wonderful relaxed venue for country walks in the hills and woods, every kind of sport, country dancing and so on, but Ralph Bell was a great cricket fan and in August many would come for the cricket coaching if nothing else. For Johnny, it was work of course, but would have included a lot of pleasure. He told the story to his family, which Dinah told me, that on one of his journeys back to Yorkshire for a league match he picked up a hitch-hiker who told him he’d recently been released from prison. The hitch-hiker’s manner made Johnny nervous and Johnny kept plying him with chocolates and fruit gums which he kept in his Land Rover until they parted company. The family remember Johnny as a marvellous raconteur of little stories such as this one. A coach and those he influenced Otterburn Hall, Northumberland; residential venue for summer coaching and relaxation.