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

LIVES IN CRICKET Schooled in Cricket The Johnny Lawrence story STEVE BINDMAN ACS PUBLICATIONS Why does a Yorkshireman, whose career for his county amounted to one second eleven game, merit a biography? Because, besides his years in post-war county cricket as an all-rounder for Somerset, Johnny Lawrence was central to so much that was good about Yorkshire cricket in the 20th century. He chauffeured the coach George Hirst. Herbert Sutcliffe placed Johnny with Somerset, and bowled the first ball at Johnny’s ‘shed’ at Rothwell outside Leeds. As a coach, or as a league player into his 60s, Johnny touched the lives of generations of players, from Jim Laker and Dickie Bird to Sir Geoffrey Boycott (who contributes a foreword and who called Johnny ‘a personal friend, coach and private tutor’) and Geoff Cope. A craftsman, a Christian and a family man besides, Johnny Lawrence truly had a ‘life in cricket’. £16.00 Revised print, September 2020.