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

187 talent and persuading him and his father that he should move to the Leeds League where he would be noticed better by the Yorkshire committee based in Headingley than if he continued to play in far away Hull. Binks then played briefly for Leeds and then in 1955 when Roy Booth was out injured played his first of 412 consecutive County Championship matches for Yorkshire until his retirement in 1969 and played twice in Test matches for England on tour in India. His record of 96 catches in a first-class season still stands. Alexis Twigg One of Johnny’s grandsons, Alexis, son of Johnny’s second child Pauline, was perhaps too young when his grandfather died to have taken much from him but was certainly inspired by the connection and became a successful batsman in league cricket, latterly with Harrogate. He did attend the nets from the age of eight or nine till well after his grandad’s death when he was eleven. His elder brother, Nicholas, also attended the nets and played league cricket for quite a few years. At his peak Alexis was good enough to be opening batsman for Cheshire and this was at a time when Cheshire won the western section of the Minor Counties Championship in 2003. It has been a source of joy to him that on his cricketing travels he has kept on meeting folk who remembered his grandfather as such a friendly character as well as such a wily bowler. Other people who passed through the nets included Arnie Sidebottom who was a successful fast and swing bowler for Yorkshire and famously played one game for England. He was there as a net bowler for Geoff Boycott and was never coached by Johnny Lawrence. He is the father and no doubt inspirer of the even more successful Ryan Sidebottom. Richard Illingworth who played for Worcestershire and England before becoming a first-class umpire attended those nets. David Byas was a successful bat for Yorkshire for many seasons and went on to captain Yorkshire to their first championship win in a long while after a long dry A few of his proteges