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

54 Central Yorkshire League. 1941 was a great season for the club and in no small measure this was due to Johnny’s bowling. He took a hat-trick on the same day as Alf Pope took one at nearby Saltaire on July 21. Salts won 11 of their first 12 league matches and went on to win the Yorkshire Council with a semi-final win versus Hartshead Moor and a narrow final win over Hemsworth. Hemsworth had been 70 for none requiring 136 but finished on 130 partly thanks to four wickets from Johnny. He took 100 wickets in the season at a mere 7.18 runs per wicket. In 1942 he repeated the feat of 100 wickets this time at an even cheaper average of 6.76. In 1943 Johnny returned to the Bradford League playing for Bingley and had his most successful season in this period with the bat scoring the highest individual score of the season in the whole League by far with 141 not out with that illustrious Lancastrian Eddie Paynter being next with 109 not out for Keighley. In his time at Bingley, Johnny played alongside Somerset swing bowler and all-rounder who would become his Somerset team-mate Bill Andrews; W. W. Keeton – a star batsman for Nottinghamshire who played for England; the young Vic Wilson who would captain Yorkshire to great Wartime in the Bradford League Believed to be Salts in 1941 having won the Yorkshire Council. Miles Coope is third from right, back row; Johnny bottom left.