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

75 A cricket school is founded after the war from Armitage’s brickyard. Planning permission for a specific cricket facility had been denied. So the greenhouse idea was launched. Sam would grow tomatoes in the summer and in the winter the space was converted into a cricket net. The glass roof – and the light it admitted was perfect for an indoor net – and strong netting would prevent the ball ever reaching the glass. Johnny called it Westfield Cricket School. It amused Johnny’s children that at the end of one summer when they returned from Taunton besides the tomatoes there were live chickens in the greenhouse which had to be cleared out for the cricket. At some point a snooker table was introduced and later a table tennis table. Miles and his neighbour Jack Birkenshaw as well as Malcolm Naylor were all good table tennis players who enjoyed friendly competition with each other; but if he had a moment Johnny would join in and he would raise his game as he was not that fond of losing. The original cricket school was ready in 1946 and was eventually opened with Herbert Sutcliffe bowling the first ball. Johnny had this altered by 1961 into a two-laned net which was especially innovatory as one lane mimicked the pace of a fast wicket – and the other strongly resembled a spinner’s wicket – and seemed to have all the character of a very lively and lifelike grass wicket despite it being an artificial surface. It was in the original net and later in the spinner’s lane that Geoffrey Boycott would dedicate hours of practice to become such an accomplished back-foot player. Dickie Bird – then a talented young batsman from Barnsley – loved to practise in the slow lane also and views it that batting there against such talented up-and-coming spin bowlers was a fantastic assist in his development. In his pioneering book, League Cricket in England, in 1952 , Roy Genders strongly praises his friend Johnny: “No man enjoys his cricket more than John Lawrence. At his home near Leeds he has built the finest indoor cricket