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

213 with the trial and was offered a contract. I was acting twelfth man against Derbyshire when War broke out; the match was abandoned. I came back on the train from Taunton with Joe Hardstaff, who was umpiring the game; it took about 16 hours to get home as we were pushed into a siding for evacuees trains coming from London to Wales. My contract for Somerset was for two years. It was at that time there was no special registration; you had to qualify for one year or two years if you had played for another First Class County. I had only played Second Eleven cricket so I had one year qualification. I had been asked to play for Yorkshire when they had five players in the Test Match at The Oval. I turned this down because I was looking to qualify for another County. I bowled two days at Len Hutton before he made his big score of 364. He wanted to get used to playing leg spin before the Australian Test. I continued my League exploits and I played for Salts (the Yorkshire Council). They were trying to get in the Bradford League and won the Yorkshire Council in 1941. The Bradford League would not admit them because they were a Works team. All the star players were in the Bradford League so it was natural I wanted to test my skill and wits against them. I joined Bingley the year after. I was brought up in the Christian religion, my father being a local preacher and myself playing the organ. I could not bring myself to relate Christianity with war and killing and registered as a Conscientious Objector. The Tribunal ordered me to do forestry and I was lucky to be able to get off to play cricket. The Bingley Club did not object to my being a Conscientious Objector. During the War there was a lot of cricket up North. They used to arrange cricket weeks for holidays at home. The Ministry of Labour even had matches and I used to get a card to go to certain places to play cricket and a lot of service men appeared in their games. Many games you could have picked an England Eleven. Bill Andrews was one of the characters who played regularly. We used to send Bill in first for his expenses and then when we went for ours we knew we were alright as Bill was a good business man. Usually when asked what are your expenses, if you said the same as Bill’s you were alright. Somerset paid their professionals £3 per week for two years after the War started and £1 in the third year and after that the cash ran out. I did well in the Bradford League, matching myself against the first class players. So much so that Yorkshire approached me Appendix One: Johnny Lawrence’s notes on his cricketing career