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

175 involved as an infant in an accident when he fell out of a car door which had not been closed properly and then had nearly died from an infected twisted bowel when six years old and these traumas may have contributed to later problems. He never scored the runs he might have done. The sheer cruelty of top competitive sport meant that he was effectively on the first-class scrap heap before reaching the age of 21. He would go on to play league cricket with success for a number of years. In his career Miles never got the opportunities to bowl his leg-spinners as he would have liked and eventually made the transition to being a successful league wicketkeeper. He played in the Bradford League at Idle and then Farsley. He played for Castleford and he played for Heckmondwike against his father and (with his father) for a year at Wakefield. We also find him with his father at East Bierley, Dalton, Honley and Bilton and there was no-one his father would rather have keeping wicket to his bowling. It was suggested to me that his career possibly suffered as others who have had an illustrious father from being in his father’s shadow or maybe from the pressure of having to follow in his father’s footsteps. He is remembered wearing a colourful cravat while keeping wicket at Honley for example, as Peter France told me, a legacy perhaps of his time at Millfield School where the educational tradition was a little divergent from the working-class roots of the Lawrence family. Miles developed similar views on life to his father and like Johnny as Hill and Phillips testified never tried to “foist his beliefs onto the rest of us”. He was popular and likable. In a letter to the family after Miles passed away, the writer was “struck by his courtesy and kindness, his helpfulness and patience, his gentleness and unfailing cheerfulness”. Miles, whose life and mental health had episodic deep misfortunes, was to tragically die young aged 48 from a heart attack only four months after Johnny. A criticism I have heard of Johnny was that he was rather severe on Miles as a player in the nets when Miles was A few of his proteges