Close encounters of the Botham kind

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Sir Ian Botham will be one of four guests-of-honour paying tribute to Brian Close this October, at a specially arranged dinner to celebrate the 60th anniversary of him becoming England’s youngest ever Test cricketer, a record he holds to this day.

Sir Ian Botham will be one of four guests-of-honour paying tribute to Brian Close this October, at a specially arranged dinner to celebrate the 60th anniversary of him becoming England’s youngest ever Test cricketer, a record he holds to this day.

During a sporting career lasting over 30 years, Close scored 35,000 first-class runs, took 1,168 wickets, captained Yorkshire, Somerset and England, played football for Leeds United and Arsenal and had golf handicaps of 5 when playing left handed and 2 when playing right handed. Not surprisingly, he is often thought of as being the ultimate sportsman.

Joining Sir Ian on the night will be the ECB’s chairman of selectors Geoff Miller, as well as former Yorkshire teammates John Hampshire and Bryan Stott.

The event will also feature specially recorded video tributes from such cricketing luminaries as Sir Gary Sobers, Sir Viv Richards, Richie Benaud and Sir Tim Rice.

The event will be hosted by Harry Gration and will take place in the Long Room at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground on Wednesday 14th October.

Tickets are just £60 each, or £550 for a table of ten.

For more information contact James Hogg on 0113 2033 607 or james@yorkshireccc.com.