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

6 Preamble Part one Johnny Lawrence always wanted to write an autobiography. He did leave a manuscript of unfinished notes which is only long enough to serve as but a miniscule cameo piece of writing – Johnny Lawrence on Johnny Lawrence. It comes as a little gem or a gold nugget – and finishes abruptly mid- sentence. Yet it is about all we have of significance of his own words about both his life and his views on cricket that in any way can be considered autobiographical. We must surmise that because he led an extremely busy and industrious life, he never found the time to expand on his written words. When we appraise his life work and endeavours – he was still working up to the time of his fatal heart attack, aged 77 – it comes as no great surprise that he never did find the time to write that book. I had thought of putting what he did write at the beginning of the book as a preface and taster to anyone hoping to follow and understand his career as it must carry infinitely more weight than my own impressions but I decided against it as I thought it would possibly spoil the sequential unfolding of the story of his life. So I’ve included these notes as an appendix. The reader is then left free to make a choice. These notes can be read first, or at the end – or whenever convenient of course. This is the first biography of Johnny Lawrence. When I first became interested in the subject I was surprised no-one had yet written one. I have found researching my subject and writing it an endlessly fascinating task. But it has also been a task made difficult by the fact that many years intervened since Johnny died before I even started my research. I never knew him personally. Those that did know him who are still around often forgot to ask or never got round to asking all the questions which younger generations always forget or never get round to asking their elders.