England expects...so leave that garden, and follow me...

 

Arthur Mitchell always looked after his possessions: it is thanks to his vigilance - and the diligence of his family in the years since his death - that Yorkshire County Cricket Club Archives Committee has been able to set out a glass case of Mitchell memorabilia in the East Stand Long Room of Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground. His grandson, Andrew - no mean cricketer - stands proudly by the case, which will remain on display until the end of 2008. THIRD PICTURE: Budding bowler Andrew, 11, at Headingley with his grandfather in 1968.

Martyr or martinet? NIGEL PULLAN gives this appreciation of a devoted Yorkshire player and coach - who scorned flashy showmanship, and never hesitated to put side before self.

ARTHUR MITCHELL was in his garden at Baildon. Yorkshire did not have a match...so he was enjoying a relaxing, green-fingered morning.

Suddenly, a car arrived at speed. Out stepped a red-faced Brian Sellers, Yorkshire captain, who had come to tell Arthur that his country needed him.

Arthur was wanted for the Third Test against South Africa - and play started at Headingley in about an hour. Maurice Leyland had lumbago, and Herbert Sutcliffe, Hollies and Clark already had withdrawn from the original 13.

"Let me tidy me sen up a bit," Mitchell said, and Sellers drove him to Headingley at such a speed that playing in his first Test in England came as a relief.

Arthur's contribution to this Test showed the two sides to his batting: he stayed for over three hours in the first innings in his dour, defensive style for 58 - but in the second he was deputed to open, and made an attractive 78 when quick runs were essential.

Arthur Mitchell played 401 matches for Yorkshire between 1922 and 1945, but he did not get a regular place until 1928. He played six Tests for England - two against South Africa, and four against India.

He was a reliable right-handed batsman and an exceptional fielder, usually in the gully or at slip - he specialised in fielding at gully to left-arm spinner Hedley Verity.

He later became Yorkshire coach alongside Leyland, and he was responsible for the discovery and development of many players. He had a reputation of being a martinet - and some of those he coached consider that he was too tough and unsympathetic - but there is another side to him, which I will discuss later.

The late Anthony Woodhouse, Vice-President of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, has supplied the details of Mitchell's early cricket life: he learned the game at Wood Bottom in Baildon, and appeared in the Sunday School Friendly League before playing with Baildon Green 2nd XI and the first team at 15. He moved to Tong Park and Saltaire - where he gained invaluable experience fielding close up to Sydney Barnes. He spent a patient six years with Yorkshire 2nd XI before he gained a regular place in the first team.

The late JM Kilburn, a great admirer, emphasised that Mitchell always put the interests of his side first.

As a No 3 he had to provide insurance against disadvantage or consolidate advantage already obtained - to score more quickly if Holmes and Sutcliffe had put on a large stand.

Kilburn gives as an example the Old Trafford Roses match at Whitsuntide 1933: Mitchell batted almost all day for 123 on a pitch described as like Blackpool Sands. Macaulay then took 12-49 when Lancashire were dismissed for 93 and 92.

Mitchell was derided by the crowd and condemned by the critics, but Kilburn says the players in the match marvelled at his performance.

Peter Thomas describes him as "the perfect professional cricketer. He drove Lancashire supporters mad with his sheer obstinacy, and cared not a jot."

Mitchell once told Neville Cardus he disliked his writing because it was too flowery...to which Leyland replied: "Well, they can't say that about your batting, Arthur."

Both Verity and Bill Bowes owed Arthur a great debt for the catches he took at slip or gully. Verity used to obtain bounce as well as turn, and Arthur’s remarkable agility and anticipation were a great asset.

He often fielded a yard or two nearer the bat than was customary. He was efficient, but eschewed the flamboyant, and I am not so sure that he would have enjoyed being hugged and kissed in celebration of his 438 catches.

Mitchell’s Test career began in India. He was picked by Douglas Jardine to tour in the winter after the Bodyline tour, and made his Test debut at the Bombay Gymkhana Ground on December 15, 1933.

He made 5 and 9, and did not have a very good tour - despite making 161 against Madras and two centuries in second-class matches.

The first match started on October 15 and the last on March 6, and if you add two sea journeys it was a long time to be away from Baildon, especially as it was so hot. His next Test was at Headingley, and he also played at The Oval.

His sixth and final test was at Lord’s against India, when he made only 14 and 0 - but he caught the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram off Verity.

Between this and the Second Test his victim received a knighthood, and appeared as Sir Gajapatairaj Vijaya Ananda, the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram. So, it was a good wicket to take.

He was made a Yorkshire coach after he retired, along with Maurice Leyland. My theory is that if you were a very good cricketer, destined for Yorkshire or England, he set very high standards and found it difficult to give praise.

But if you were a muppet, as I was, he was more relaxed. I suspect that he took great pride in the achievements of the First Class cricketers he produced.

Although I was never more than an ordinary player, he took an interest in me.

I played for three years at Harrogate with what were Yorkshire Schools teams who met the Craven Gentlemen on the Saturday. He and Maurice Leyland ran it, and in my last year I won a state scholarship that must have been in the paper.

Anyway, he came to me in the dressing room and congratulated me, and I think he was the only person outside school and family who did.

Later I met him during a Second Eleven match at Appleby, and we talked for a long time.

Then, in the pavilion at Old Trafford, he was on his own, and I got talking again. I said I was impressed with England’s new spinner.

Arthur was outraged: "He’s no good," he said, and proceeded to explain why by demonstrating in front of the members what was wrong with the action.

I suppose these are trivial encounters, but they show that he was not dour and uncommunicative to me.

I sometimes wish I wasn't a muppet, but it did enable me to meet a Yorkshire player whose achievements have been underrated.

He was a loyal team man, not a flashy individual, and he devoted himself to Yorkshire cricket.

Harold 'Dickie' Bird, who played for Yorkshire and Leicestershire but became world-famous as a Test umpire said: "I always went in Arthur's net.

"Some of them preferred to go in Maurice Leyland's because he was a nice man...but I always went into Arthur's, and he took an interest in me. He was furious with them when they dropped me."

Former Yorkshire and England off-spinner Geoff Cope, who later joined the Management Board and had a year as Yorkshire Chairman, said that going into Maurice's net was not always en escape:

"He would shout at you there. Maurice used to say, 'His bark's worse than his bite, you know.' Many were upset when he bawled and shouted at them...until they found out that THEY were the ones who were being asked back next time.

"One day it was terribly cold in the old Winter Shed, and one or two Colts standing at the back of the nets waiting for a turn had their hands in their pockets. Arthur strode by in whites, blazer, Yorkshire cap and walking stick: he rapped this lad over the knuckles with his stick, and said, 'Tha's had plenty of time to find thi handkerchief'."

The classic Mitchell story is quoted in Bill Bowes's book, Express Deliveries. Off-spinner Ellis Robinson induced a catch off his own bowling, but he had to run forward and dive to his right, rolling over until he ended up alongside Arthur at short-mid-wicket - but lying flat on his back with the ball safely held. "Gerrup. Tha's makin' exhibition o' thissen'," growled Arthur.

He was efficient, but eschewed the flamboyant...he would have had no time for hugs and kisses...

Why not stay on this webpage to view Vaughn Ridley's close-up shots of the glasscase?

You can see Arthur's MCC touring blazer, his Yorkshire sweater and all his caps - England, Yorkshire and Yorkshire Seconds...team photos and inscriptions...and can you see in the picture immediately below this text Arthur walking out to bat in India with Douglas Jardine, who was enjoying his swansong as England captain in 1933-4? You will have to peer under their expansive sunhats. Jardine declined to be considered for the 1934 Ashes series.

And then, when you have done all this, stay with us to view a selection of black-and-white photos loaned to this website by Ron Deaton, of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Archives Committee. Have you ever seen what may be the first picture ever taken of Arthur in whites? We are grateful to Ron for supplying the accompanying captions.

We are also indebted to Andrew Mitchell and the Yorkshire Post for the loan of historic pictures on this webpage.

Capless youth: This photo taken by C Westnutt, of Pudsey, of the Baildon Green XI cc 1917 must be one of the earliest of Arthur in whites. He was born on September 13, 1902, and played for Baildon Green 1st  XI at the age of 15. He is on the extreme right of the front row - the only player NOT wearing a cap. His pads look as though they could do with a clean.

Pub quiz time: No prizes for guessing most of these names from the Yorkshire side at St George's Road, Harrogate, in 1936...but can you name the player sitting between skipper Brian Sellers and Maurice Leyland? Clue: he was born at Brandsby, near York, in 1913, and played in eight Tests for England. Answers, please, to Ron Deaton. Mitchell, back row fourth from left, seems to be with the spectators, and did you notice that the chap on his left, Len Hutton, is still wearing a Colts' blazer? The young man dressed in whites only on the extreme right is Joe Johnson - who turned out three times for Yorkshire between 1939 and 1939, and is thought to be the second-oldest surviving former Yorkshire player.

Scarborough Festival 1938: Arthur Mitchell is second from left, standing next to Hedley Verity, who was to lose his life leading an infantry attack in Sicily in 1943. Five members of this side - Len Hutton, Maurice Leyland, Bill Bowes, Arthur Wood and Verity are not long back from the Oval timeless Test against Australia, in which England scored 903-7 declared and Hutton batted into the third day to compile 364.

Championship coach 1959: It is a long time since Baildon Green 1917. Arthur, back row extreme left, and Maurice Leyland, extreme right, are now in the business of telling others how to do it, and here they are umpiring a pre-season warm-up game at Headingley. Yorkshire had ELEVEN Test players in the squad...and it was to be their first outright Championship victory since 1946. Back row, left to right: Arthur, Jackie Birkenshaw, Harold "Dickie" Bird, Don Wilson, David Pickles, Mel Ryan, Brian Bolus, Jimmy Binks, Philip Sharpe and Maurice. Centre row: Fred Trueman, Vic Wilson, Ronnie Burnet, Brian Close and Ray Illingworth. Front row: Ken Taylor, Doug Padgett and Bryan Stott.
PS: Jackie Birkenshaw and Brian Bolus played all their Test cricket after leaving Yorkshire.