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

41 Park on June 4, “on a wicket that bowlers wish they could carry round with them” as the newspaper put it, but this was not enough on this occasion as Northern, from 34 for three, collapsed to 43 all out. We don’t know how often he – with or without his newly- wed – made sorties to Yorkshire, midweek between matches for Liverpool; but it must have been on one such occasion that he was commissioned to bowl at Len Hutton in Herbert Sutcliffe’s garden at Woodlands in Fulneck, Pudsey on a concreted outdoor strip. It was also in 1938 around the same time that he learnt from Sutcliffe, who was by now his good friend, that he was about to be invited to play in a match for Yorkshire while five of the team were away on Test duty. Confidentially Sutcliffe warned him that this was likely to be a one-off as it was extremely rare even for Yorkshire at the time, to have quite so many players playing for England, and that playing in that game would destroy his qualification for Somerset. When the offer came, he did indeed – presumably with enormous regret – turn it down. Johnny then re-joined Windhill for the season of 1939. Johnny writes: “Although it was very good cricket in the Liverpool competition, I missed the atmosphere of the Yorkshire League Cricket and decided to go back to Windhill, the club I left in 1937. At the start of 1939 season, Somerset CCC wrote to me to go down for a trial. Windhill had a cup match and wanted me to play, so I informed Somerset I would go down at a later date.” Windhill had developed an extremely good all-round side and in an outstanding season convincingly retained the Bradford League championship even without his services in the year 1938. Nonetheless they were glad to have him back in the summer of 1939 and Johnny was to make a sensational return with five for 47 and 16 not out and his team mate D Mackenzie took five for 37 to leave East Bierley all out for 85 as according to the press report “league cricketers braved Saturday’s icy blasts to get right off the Marriage and a move to Liverpool Northern and back