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

92 Johnny’s own tally of wickets was fewer and more expensive in 1947, but he took his first five-wicket haul in an innings with six for 53 against Hampshire at Weston super Mare. His selection for that Harrogate Festival fixture was a recognition of his talents and perhaps also his quality as an entertainer. This was a poor season for the county after what may have been to some extent false optimism of the season before. Somerset finished ninth in the County Championship. A top county bowler emerges 1948 – 1951 1948 The county had at the outset made the extraordinary and unprecedented move of appointing three captains for the season – something that now looks ridiculously foolish – but such was the limited availability of the amateur candidates. So we have Brigadier Mitchell Innes, J.M Seamer and G.E.S Woodhouse taking turns. The 1948 season saw the start of Johnny Lawrence’s best bowling years, though his batting fell away. His aggregate of wickets rose from 45 in 1947 to 82, and the bowling average fell from more than 36 runs per wicket to just 22. He finished second in Somerset’s bowling averages behind Somerset’s other front-line spin bowler Horace Hazell. Hazell took 100 wickets at a pace described by John Arlott as the only man slow enough to keep wicket to his own bowling – in other words even slower than Johnny, by Arlott’s description. Johnny’s two best bowling performances in this season – except for seven wickets in an early season friendly with Glamorgan which was yet a first-class match – came against Yorkshire, with six for 29 in the match at Harrogate followed by six for 35 in the return match at Taunton when Johnny took a hat-trick as part of four wickets in five balls. Johnny did not bowl in the second innings of that match at Taunton. He developed excruciating back pains which were diagnosed as strained cords and his brother, Sam, A first class career with Somerset