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

25 Johnny was certainly influenced by Sunday School. At first he attended Rothwell Methodist Church Sunday School. His father was a lay preacher at this church and superintendent of the Sunday School. Wilfred Batty, Michael Ingham and the Rev. Allan Holt were teachers at the Sunday School who made a deep impression on the young Johnny; as did annual trips with his father to Cliff College, a Methodist college in Derbyshire. Johnny eventually moved to Robin Hood Methodist Chapel and Sunday School when he was appointed organist there. By the age of 20 he had built a pipe organ which was moved into the Robin Hood chapel. He would have been nine when he watched his first county match at Headingley. His outstanding memories came in the days when spectators would appreciate the two teams fully and not be shy to applaud the opposition as they sometimes are today. He saw the Yorkshire bowling of famous names Abe Waddington, Emmott Robinson, Wilfred Rhodes and Roy Kilner all wicketless as Hampshire batsmen George Brown and Philip (C. P.) Mead were to dominate their bowling and set up what was to be an innings victory. He remembers some of the facts slightly wrongly – what person doesn’t from their childhood memories! The Yorkshire bowler he remembers who did break through (with the two wickets that did fall – not five!) was Whiting (C.P) not Whitehead but he is right to say that this was the last time he got a chance to play for Yorkshire. Mead made 122 not out not 180 not out as Johnny remembered but he did score 182 not out the following year in a Test against the Australians at the Oval and no doubt learning of that innings made an impression on Johnny’s memory. Johnny’s early memories continue: “I remember going to Leeds, to Herbert Sutcliffe’s shop, with my father who bought me my first bat. It was a J. B. Hobbs bat and I still think it was the best bat I ever had. We went straight up to Roundhay Park Oval to try it out and I can still smell the Linseed Oil, which gives me a thrill every time I oil a bat.” Early days