Cyril Wright - packed finest pictorial history of Yorkshire cricket into a lifetime...and gave it all to the Museum
Let the sun shine in...who would have believed that in the poor summer of 2008 photographer VAUGHN RIDLEY would have been bounced by the light entering the East Stand Long Room on such a historic occasion? It was August 1 - the eve of Mark Ramprakash's perhaps never-to-be-repeated feat of completing 100 First Class centuries at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground - and Yorkshire's Immediate Past President, Bob Appleyard, second from left, took his eye off the LV Championship match against Surrey to receive on behalf of the Club the Cyril Wright Memorial Cigarette Card Collection.
Cyril's widow, Dorothy, extreme left, and son Steven, second right, heard Ron Deaton, extreme right, of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Archives Committee, say that so vast was Cyril's lifetime collection of cigarette cards that it was doubtful whether the complete galleries of frames could have been accommodated on the walls of the Albert Hall.
Ron and fellow archivist Brian Sanderson had spent hundreds of hours in the early months of the year at Brian's house near the ground collating the cards of Yorkshire players and teams - not counting Cyril's vast collections of other teams and categories including film stars and Royalty - and the Wright family had given to Headingley a Yorkshire collection running to 
several thousand cards in 80 sets and 20 frames.
The Archives Committee is busy assembling material for when redevelopment of the Kirkstall Lane End frees up space for a Yorkshire Cricket Museum, and many of the potential exhibits have been housed temporarily by West Yorkshire Archive Service at Morley.
Meanwhile, sets from the Cyril Wright collection will feature on a rotation basis in the glass cases which can be viewed in the East Stand Long Room.
Dorothy said that Cyril, who died in 2001 aged 80, had started the collection as a small boy - sifting through waste bins at sports grounds as well as asking adults if he could have their cards.
It was John Arlott who wrote that the finest pictorial record of cricket in the 20th Century was represented on cigarette cards. The earliest known cards are thought to have been issued in 1882. And who remembers that in 1938 - the year Sir Leonard Hutton scored 364 against Australia - you could buy 10 cigarettes for 6d? Or 2.5p in new money!
Yorkshire Vice-President Sidney Fielden wrote for Yorkshire's White Rose magazine on the occasion of Cyril's death:
It was in 1990 that Cyril, of New Mill, Huddersfield, gave a substantial part of his collection of cigarette cards to the Club, and 48 framed sets were placed in the ballroom. A few years later the collection found a new home when the Verity-Bowes Suite was opened, and now the Archives Committee is discussing likely preferences for the site of the Headingley museum.
Cyril was for many years a keen member of Huddersfield Card Club, and an equally keen member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
He always loved sport, and recalled scouring the terraces of Leeds Road, the former home of Huddersfield Town Football Club, as a lad seeking discarded cigarette packets and those precious cards.
He was born in Swinton,
"I used to go and ask the men who were waiting for the pub to open on Sunday if they had any cards in their cigarette packets."
The family moved to
He attended
Cyril played cricket as an all-rounder for Kirkburton, Bradley Mills and Paddock, taking 6-20 in his first match for Bradley Mills with his medium-pace.
With Paddock, he helped the 2nd XI to win the league in 1943 and the Paddock Shield in 1944. He once scored 104 against Shepley.
His favourite latter-day cricketer was Craig White, with whom he shared the same initials.
Cyril’s last frame, completed a few days before he died, was for his friend, Douglas Verity, whose father, Hedley, was the architect of that
FOOTNOTE: Behind Steven Wright, top picture, can be seen the Arthur Mitchell glass case - which was unveiled in the presence of Arthur's grandson, Andrew, the same day.