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

28 The Ropery is still a home today and as the present occupants kindly showed me it is still in a very good condition. He built a concrete outdoor strip which sufficed as a practice cricket wicket long before he built a cricket net at Westfield Road, where he had moved on the other side of the village. Up to this time he had been playing league cricket for Carlton and then in 1933, aged 22, Johnny is playing for Rothwell in the Leeds League and is opening the batting with fair success but as yet still rarely bowling – and is not yet a professional. ‘Not yet a professional’ – but all this would change the following season! Early days