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

37 who would go on to play for England. Johnny had to settle for a catch, 11 runs, one more wicket and a second innings did-not-bat in the rest of that match. We do not know if he was invited to play for the seconds again and if he had been unable to play due to coaching commitments or if – perhaps – one can only speculate that for whatever reason he may not have been asked again. Johnny’s debut performance would have been at any other club a great plus but Yorkshire first team won the county championship seven times in the 1930s and had perhaps the greatest of all in their tradition of their great left-arm spinners, Hedley Verity in the side. George Macaulay was the off spinner until Ellis Robinson succeeded him and when either was not present, Arthur Booth (left hand) and Frank Smailes (right-hand) were on hand. Yorkshire had no tradition of leg spin bowling and the team was so successful with such an established personnel that it was a well nigh impossible team to break into, in any case, and even a place in the second team was a daunting prospect. It may come as a great surprise to those who knew Johnny and knew what an honest fellow he was but he actually told a white lie about his age. He told Yorkshire he was born in 1914 not 1911 and his false age is often repeated in various places, including Somerset’s records. Whether he would ever have been engaged in first-class cricket at all, if this small truth had been known is a matter for conjecture. This season was the first of Windhill’s five successive Bradford League championships and Johnny certainly played more than his part. When he returned after being out briefly with a mid-season injury, he had the indignity of being collared by the Spen batsman M. Whitehead who remarkably hit him in five successive deliveries for four, four, six, six, six and this blip in Johnny’s performances contributed to the match being drawn. Windhill’s successful season was a team effort. J.A. Swift and Ben Hipkin made it into the Bradford League batting averages and Squire Render, the fast man who opened Windhill’s bowling with Johnny was Windhill’s best bowler A Professional in League Cricket from 1934