Norman Yardley: Yorkshire’s Gentleman Cricketer

Martin Chandler | 7:27am GMT 31 January 2016

Published: 2015
Pages: 177
Author: Howe, Martin
Publisher: ACS
Rating: 3.5 stars

In 1950 Norman Yardley, the man who had the dubious pleasure of having to captain England against Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, published an autobiography. Cricket Campaigns has some interesting passages, particularly about several of the twenty Test matches in which its author represented his country, but overall if there is a volume of autobiography anywhere that reveals less of its author’s personality then I haven’t read it.

Against that background the news that Martin Howe, a man steeped in Yorkshire cricket, was going to add to his previous contributions to the ACS Lives in Cricket Series on Rockley Wilson and Frank Sugg, made me sit up and take notice. Having also had the pleasure of reading some of his other writings on Yorkshire cricketers I knew that the depth of his research would be impressive, and that he would have a large ‘bank’ of conversations with old Yorkshire cricketers to supplement the wider material from family and friends that all biographers seek to gather together.

So does Howe fulfil his ambition to paint a portrait of the real Norman Yardley? He certainly does to a greater extent than has previously been accomplished, but then it has always been known that Yardley was an extremely pleasant man, and one who would do his level best to avoid any sort of confrontation. His desire not to have to engage in any sort of ‘difficult’ conversation was so strong that when the England selectors decided to rest Len Hutton during the 1948 series Yardley, despite being England skipper and Hutton’s county colleague, never tried to explain the decision to his teammate.

The consensus has always seemed to be that Yardley was simply ‘too nice’ to be a really effective captain, and that he failed to exercise any control over the big personalities in the Yorkshire dressing room. This inability, despite a team stuffed full of Test players, saw Yorkshire play second fiddle to Surrey during Yardley’s tenure. The main complaint seems to be that Johnny Wardle and Bob Appleyard were allowed to do whatever they liked. Certainly Ray Illingworth and Brian Close were critical, as were Fred Trueman and Len Hutton. Interestingly the less celebrated players that Howe spoke to were much more supportive of the importance of the undoubted tactical acumen that Yardley had.

All in all Howe has produced a fine analysis of Yardley as cricketer and captain. There is also a fine summary of Yardley’s journalistic and broadcasting endeavours. His business interests outside the game are explained as well, albeit there are as many questions left unanswered as are explained.

Yardley played as an amateur due to the fortune accumulated by his grandfather, who must have been a remarkable man. He worked in a mine as a child, but clearly had something about him, as he became a shopkeeper. Not content with that he built up his retail business and seems to have invested astutely in property as well. Did Yardley need to work? Certainly not as a youngster as he enjoyed his time at Cambridge on the sports field, but it isn’t entirely clear what happened to the family fortune.

Yardley’s own father clearly enjoyed the fruits of his father’s hard work, but on finishing the book I still wasn’t clear whether Yardley himself worked because he needed to, or just because he wanted to do so, or somewhere in between. Certainly his various employments, particularly the last as a wine merchant, seem to have been more congenial than high-flying, but he seems to have needed to work.

The answer to the dissipation of the family fortune seems likely to be the punitive post war tax regime that was put in place to help dig the country out of the financial hole it was in after waging war for six long years. I would have liked Howe to explain that, but he is by no means the first biographer who has failed to do so in circumstances where it is relevant to his subject. I have little doubt but that the history of UK Fiscal Policy as an entire subject is tedious in the extreme, but I for one would like to understand just how it affected a family like the Yardleys.

Norman Yardley: Yorkshire’s Gentlemen Cricketer is certainly one of the longer volumes in the ACS Lives in Cricket Series, and in truth it could probably have done without the accounts of the Test series in which Yardley played, all of which are covered extensively elsewhere, particularly 1948. Despite that the book is very well written, and most importantly contains much of interest. It is recommended, and not just to Yorkshiremen of a certain age.