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

204 cricket for a generation. But if – in the better part of world events – there is yet a lot of cricket still being played as a sport and there being a huge sporting family, Yorkshire cricket is but a huge family within that greater family and Johnny Lawrence has been a huge contributor to that tradition both in Yorkshire and as an ambassador for professional sporting standards wherever he went. A practice ground with an artificial wicket used to sit in front of the two houses at Toulston. Various teams used it at different times and it was always there as a facility for outdoor practice and to play matches which could not be played elsewhere when the weather did not permit – but eventually after Mary Lawrence passed away in January 2007, Stephen was forced eventually to sell half the land and the house which his mother had still lived in was sold. So this facility went with it. Stephen and his own family’s accommodation had been built onto the remaining building which already housed the nets, the changing room and the squash courts. However the nets are still in great popular usage and the indoor league – with its five divisions and 15 matches a week during the autumn – yet flourishes. This represents a part of his great legacy. Perhaps the other part is the memories of those who have remembered him which I have tried to convey in this book. Epitaph – proteges become coaches