Bill Bridge: Boycott appointment would see great divide in Yorkshire ranks

At the annual meeting in spring Raymond Illingworth will begin the second and final year of his presidency of the club and the task for Yorkshire's board is to come up with the name of a successor to put before the members; it is not as straightforward as it sounds.

Since Sir David Jones stepped down as president in 2006 Yorkshire have had a former cricketer in the club's most prestigious position, first Bob Appleyard, then Brian Close, now Raymond Illingworth. It is a trend many members would like to see continued.

The next man in line – all things being equal – would be Geoffrey Boycott and his appointment would be acclaimed by a large cross-section of the Yorkshire cricketing public, not all of them members of the club.

As the third-highest run-scorer in the history of the club and second only to Herbert Sutcliffe in the number of centuries scored, Boycott's place in Yorkshire folklore as well as the statistical rankings is assured.

Add that unforgettable afternoon at Headingley when he became the first cricketer to score his 100th first-class century in a Test match; his feat in becoming the first English batsman to average over 100 in a first-class season; his brave, successful battle against throat cancer; his service as a director of the club; and, in later years, his eminence as a commentator on the game and you have a solid case for him being the president for the two years from 2012.

If only all things were equal. There is already opposition to Boycott becoming president stirring through the ranks. The fact that he spends most of the year at his home on a luxury golf complex in Paarl near Cape Town is an obvious issue, given that virtually all the duties of a Yorkshire president are carried out within the county.

There is more. Many, some of them still deeply wounded by the behaviour of those who supported Boycott, cannot forgive him for the division he brought on the club after his dismissal as captain by the committee in 1978.

Some of the protagonists in a battle which caused families to split and long-time friends to become bitter foes have passed on but enough remain for the words "Boycott", "Reform Group" and "civil war" to stir the old anger. They point to the years when Boycott thrived but Yorkshire won nothing and a generation of young cricketers became disillusioned with playing for their native county.

There is yet more. The court case in France in which Boycott was convicted of assault is still implanted in some minds; they would not be happy to have someone handed a fine and suspended sentence in court taking on a role once filled by – among others – Lord Hawke, Sir William Worsley, Sir Kenneth Parkinson and Sir Leonard Hutton.

If all that was not enough to give Colin Graves, the club chairman, and his colleagues on the board a few sleepless nights, there is another issue: if not Boycott, then who?

Some, especially Barnsley way, might suggest Dickie Bird who became appreciated throughout the cricketing world as perhaps the best umpire in the game, a best-selling author and one of the great characters of Yorkshire cricket as a likely candidate.

But he played only 25 innings in 14 matches for Yorkshire, being best remembered for his unbeaten 181 against Glamorgan at Bradford Park Avenue in May 1959. After that innings he was dropped and the following season moved to Leicestershire. His average for Yorkshire was 26.65.

Bryan Stott, a key member of the team Ronnie Burnet led to the County Championship in 1959, not least through his effervescent opening partnership with Ken Taylor and his thrilling out-fielding, is another who should enter the debate.

Stott played in 187 matches for Yorkshire, scoring 9,168 runs at 31.61, and after retiring from first-class cricket devoted much of his time away from business in promoting cricket in schools. He later became a key man in the formation of the Yorkshire Players' Association and now serves as chairman.

Bob Platt is another from that generation who has worked tirelessly for cricket. One of the fast-medium bowlers generally given the task of operating at the other end (the uphill one) to Fred Trueman, Platt claimed 282 first-class wickets in 96 matches for Yorkshire at an average of 22.65. He later became a respected chairman of the club's cricket committee.

Philip Sharpe was an England batsman and one of the best slip catchers in the history of the game who later helped Yorkshire for many years with their travel arrangements for pre-season tours while Doug Padgett, another from the golden generation who earned England recognition, had a second career with the county as one of the best coaches in the game.

There are others whose names will be raised as the debate widens but the board may well appreciate that, despite what they hope will be short-term financial problems due to a lack of top international cricket at Headingley, the future on the field holds so much promise that this may not be the time to risk acrimony and division by reopening and revisiting old arguments.

and another thing...

THE praise was, quite rightly, unanimous across the racing industry as Paul Hanagan completed the longest summer of his life with a smile which spoke as much of relief as it did of triumph.

No-one cared a jot that Hanagan and his close rival Richard Hughes had spent a frustrating afternoon on Doncaster's Town Moor, neither able to add to their season's tally in the jockeys' championship.

Hanagan, the quiet lad from Warrington who now lives near Malton, had earned the accolade – and the blessed rest that the end of the season brings.

Typically, Hanagan was magnanimous in victory, saying of the man who pursued him with a remarkable will over the closing weeks of the season: "Richard has been an absolute gentleman. I had a lot of respect for him before but I have even more now."

Respect: that is the name of the game.

Now the whole of English racing will respect Paul Hanagan, not just because he is champion jockey but because of the way he has conducted himself throughout a season in which he has ridden 191 winners but also covered more miles on donkeys than even Robert Louis Stevenson.