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

42 mark for the new season”. A successful season for Johnny and Windhill culminated in a win over title contenders Bingley on August 12. Suddenly Windhill became strong favourites to retain their title. Johnny had done his job and this was to be his last match for Windhill who made sure of the title two weeks later. Windhill would have the great player and great crowd- puller Learie Constantine as their pro’ in 1940 and Johnny Lawrence would have to move on again. We should note that this proud club Windhill had to leave the Bradford League in 2016 without fulfilling any of its fixtures and was threatened with permanent demise and Busy Lane was threatened with being sold off to property developers as despite the continued relative strength of Yorkshire cricket compared to other places there has yet been a dwindling of the number of clubs and grounds. However this club was only just saved from extinction in 2017 and is continuing today. Johnny writes of the Somerset trial: “I eventually went in late July. I was successful with the trial and was offered a contract.” It was in 1939 that Johnny had his coaching engagements at the schools mentioned. There is one reference to a match undated: The Pocklingtonian , dated Midsummer 1939, “School v. C.V. Laycock’s XI: “The School batted first and never settled down against the medium-paced outswingers of J. Lund, the Eccleshill professional [Eccleshill, Bradford, presumably]. Most of the later batsmen however made useful scores to bring the total to 83. J. Lund took three for 12 and H.V. Laycock, four for 13. “J. Lawrence, the School coach, proved to be almost unplayable when C.V. Laycock’s XI went in. He made the ball turn quickly from the leg and occasionally sent up googlies, deceiving the batsmen completely. Some good catches were made and the school finished easy winners, Lawrence taking eight wickets for 13 runs.” Marriage and a move to Liverpool Northern and back