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

195 bowl at you. The pursuit of excellence may be a bit old- fashioned in this sophisticated world but it made sense to me and still does.” Obviously this 45 minutes’ practice is more about Boycott than Lawrence and illustrates that each client must interpret individually the guidance on offer. Boycott continued to visit his mentor and practice at his school throughout his playing career, He mentions practicing on that polished wooden floor at Rothwell (with the mat rolled up and dispensed with) after the 1967 season practicing his fast reflexes against Johnny’s spin prior to the West Indian tour of that winter. He practised similarly – Stephen Lawrence tells me – at the new Tadcaster nets to minimise the threat of left arm over the wicket spinner Ray Bright of Australia by practicing – as no left arm spinner was available – against right hand leg spin bowled round the wicket. I can testify both to Boycott’s magnificence against leg spin and to the artfulness of this kind of bowling by being lucky enough to have seen for example Boycott score a magnificent 128 against the bowling of Intikhab Alam at Headingley for Yorkshire versus Pakistan in 1967 but even the great man eventually failed to pick Inti’s googly and was comprehensively bowled. Boycott’s innings on the first day of Yorkshire’s famous innings win over Australia in 1968 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield included a stern test from that interesting and unusual bowler John Gleeson but on this occasion it was the more occasional but very useful leggie Ian Chappell who took Boycott’s wicket eventually for 86. Boycott’s successful Test career amounted to more runs scored by any England player in history at the time that he completed his career. He scored more centuries for Yorkshire than any other batsman in the county’s history. His controversial character is not the subject of this book. Suffice it to say that he was never backward in acknowledging his mentor and was happy to give me his time and advice freely. Johnny’s most famous protege – Geoffrey Boycott Speaks