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

31 mid 1930s – and he got to drive Hirst around during this period so that Hirst who didn’t drive could visit private pupils at arranged venues. This is the greatest example of Johnny’s serendipity – his determination to be in the right place at the right time – so that he could learn the maximum about the secrets of success in a sport which requires a depth and development of subtle skills and knowledge. Johnny Lawrence not only learnt from these great masters, he earned their respect and friendship. I understand that Johnny at this time became Hirst’s ‘net bowler’ – to bowl at Hirst’s tutees during lessons. This in itself would have stretched Johnny to bowl with hyper-accuracy to the tutees and thus to improve his own development as a bowler. It is ironic that – according to one source – he never had specific batting lessons from Hirst as that would prove too expensive, and one can speculate how the batting talents of Johnny Lawrence might have been honed to even better first-class proficiency if he had had such lessons. Unfortunately there seems to be no one source telling us who were the official coaches for Yorkshire at Headingley at different times; but as I understand it, it must have been in the 1920s that Bobby Peel coached alongside George Hirst who continued as the sole coach after Peel’s time until 1938 when he retired. Emmott Robinson was in the background during this latter period and became coach in 1939. These are names to conjure with. They were great bowlers, great players, and great characters. They give us an imprint of Yorkshire cricket – in a county where, I understand, there is to the present day a similar amount of cricket played on a weekend as in the whole of Australia. (It has been held that there is more cricket played in Yorkshire though this is not quite true!) This imprint runs deep and still influences the scene today. And Yorkshire cricket – if it were ever to be capable of being canned and patented – would be still the outstanding product in the world of cricket which would have worldwide marketing value. So many Yorkshire players – whether rejects by the county Starting to make his way up the cricketing ladder