The Bramall Lane story

 Posted by Tony Hutton

                           Bramall Lane, Sheffield.

One of my Lancashire friends kindly sent me an article from The Guardian last week which celebrated the fact that it was fifty years ago this winter when the shareholders of the Sheffield United cricket and football club held a referendum on whether to cease playing cricket on their dual purpose ground at Bramall Lane. The result was in favour of cricket remaining, but six months later the decision was made in favour of the football club so that they could build a new stand on the fourth side of their ground.

The last match turned out to be a Roses championship match with Lancashire early in August 1973, yet another of my 'I was there' moments. Living in Sheffield as I did then and having been a regular at the Lane during the late sixties and early seventies, I had enjoyed watching the Yorkshire side of that time including the famous victory over the Australian tourists in 1968. I recall sitting next to an elderly lady in front of the pavilion who had watched all the great names of cricket over the years and regaled me with tales of Wilfred Rhodes and Jack Hobbs among many more.

                                              Wilfred Rhodes

So it was that the last game began on a sombre note with players and spectators standing in silence before play to remember Wilfred Rhodes, the greatest Yorkshireman of them all, who had recently died at the age of 95. The Bishop of Wakefield read an epitaph to the great man.

Captains Geoff Boycott and David Lloyd at the toss.

The final game proved to be something of an anti-climax. What had always been a daunting place for visiting players due to the often vociferous spectators, never short of an opinion or a reaction to events, was reduced to an embarrassed silence by the poor showing of the home batsmen on the first morning. Yorkshire all out for 99, with Peter Lee the main destroyer with six wickets for 43 runs.

                             The unhappy home supporters did not enjoy lunch.            

Lancashire fared little better when they batted and they were 74-7 when play ended on the first day. The ever reliable Tony Nicholson destroyed the top order in a splendid early burst of wickets. Rain prevented any play on day two but fortunately, due to an invitation from my friend and business colleague Frank Lowson, I was able to join a glittering array of cricketers both past and present at a celebration dinner held at Sheffield City Hall that evening. I had to remind Frank that he and Len Hutton put on 286 against South Africa at the Lane in 1951.

It was an evening of cricketing reminiscences from such great names as Norman Yardley captain of England and Yorkshire, Peter West of the BBC, Alan Wharton of Lancashire, Neil Hawke of Australia, Fred Trueman, Arthur Booth and Bill Bowes all Yorkshire legends.

Boycott leads out Yorkshire for the last time at Bramall Lane.

The last day of cricket at the famous old ground was even more of an anti-climax with the wet weather continuing until mid- afternoon. When play eventually started to ironic cheers from the crowd, Sullivan who had taken four wickets on the first day again distinguished himself with 48 not out to give the visitors a slender lead. They then declared on 111-8 and, with no chance of a result, left Yorkshire to bat out time which they duly did with echos of slow moving games from the past.

With the spectators trying to get the batsmen to hit out to end the game and so many years of history with a six, Sharpe and Johnson plodded on to take the total to 114-2 in 72 turgid overs. Sharpe improved his average with 62 not out and Johnson calmly prodded the last ball, bowled by Simmons, slowly back to the bowler.

Last ball to be bowled in the long history of Bramall Lane cricket.

The pitch was invaded at the end by a crowd of not only young boys but many more mature men, armed with tools of varying descriptions to dig out a piece of the hallowed turf to take home with them. Wonder how many such pieces still survive in the lawns of South Yorkshire.

Now it was time for the local press to provide us with reams of memories from the past, great players, great performances and enough to fill a book. Keith Farnsworth recalled the morning in 1948 when Ron Aspinall, the Yorkshire bowler, claimed the first Australian wicket with the third ball of the morning. The roar matched anything that ever greeted a goal in a football match at the ground.

He also pointed out that one of the last match umpires, Arthur Fagg of Kent, was the only batsman not dismissed by Hedley Verity, who took 9-12 against his county. Horace Fisher famously took a hat trick of lbws, Cameron of South Africa hammered Verity for 30 off one over, and perhaps most memorable of all the July day in 1933 when Douglas Jardine, fresh from leading England to Ashes victory in Australia, was afforded a standing ovation all the way to the wicket when he walked out to bat for Surrey.

One final point made by former Yorkshire and England fast bowler Bill Bowes, by then a most respected journalist, was that there should have been another game at Bramall Lane the following Wednesday. Yorkshire were expecting to play Essex in the second round of the Gillette Cup and plans were already being laid for the game to be televised from Bramall Lane. Unfortunately to most people's surprise Yorkshire had been beaten by Minor County Durham at Harrogate in the first round and Essex had to travel to Durham instead.