Sporting Bygones: Disagreement reigns over the real reasons behind ‘sensational’ match-winning century from Boycott in front of sell-out Lord’s

Brian Close is seen holding aloft the Gillette Cup trophy after Yorkshire thrashed Surrey by 175 runs at Lord’s in what Wisden termed “a surprisingly one-sided match.”

It was one of nine trophies Yorkshire won between 1959 and 1969, the club claiming seven County Championship titles and another Gillette Cup during a spell of success that must seem a million miles away to those fortunate enough to have witnessed it.

A side that contained many greats including Close himself, Fred Trueman, Ray Illingworth and Geoffrey Boycott, swept all before them and set a benchmark that subsequent Yorkshire teams have failed to follow.

The hero for Yorkshire on that September afternoon was the man on the far right of our picture.

Boycott hit 146 – a career-best one-day effort and still the highest individual innings in a county final at Lord’s.

Boycott’s knock underpinned a total of 317-4 that was further swelled by a splendid 79 from Close. The pair added 192 for the second wicket as Yorkshire, sent into bat, comprehensively conquered the Surrey attack.

So well did Boycott bat, and so aggressively did he perform, that the innings became something of a millstone round his neck.

Thereafter, it was cited as an example of what Boycott could do when the muse was with him, how explosively he could hit the ball when he put his mind to it.

As former Yorkshire left-arm spin bowler Don Wilson told Leo McKinstry, Boycott’s biographer: “He was fantastic that day.

“All of a sudden he was hitting the ball over mid-off and mid-on. We had never seen him lift the ball in the air in our lives.

“The shots he played were phenomenal. As he came off, the noise was amazing. Every person on the ground stood and applauded him.

“I couldn’t believe this was happening at Lord’s, normally a sedate place.

“The trouble is, people were asking, ‘Why the hell didn’t he do that before?’”

It has long been held that the catalyst for Boycott’s performance was an instruction from Close to get on with it when the Yorkshire captain arrived at the crease.

Boycott has always denied this, claiming in his autobiography that “so far as I am concerned, at no time did Close tell me to get on with it, or anything remotely similar.

“The myth about my attitude and motivation that day supports the image of a bold, decisive captain dominating a reluctant subordinate by the force of his personality – but not once did he threaten or cajole me into playing the strokes I played.”

Close, however, gave a different view. He told McKinstry: “I’m out there and straight away I get stuck into Boycs: ‘Come on, you’ll run when I tell you to bloody run. Now let’s get a move on.’

“I threatened to wrap my bat round his bloody neck. Soon we were getting three or four singles every over and the field started to creep in to close us down.

“So I said, ‘Listen, Boycs, if there’s anything up, just bloody belt it.’ Next ball from Geoff Arnold, he cracked it through extra cover for four. No one had ever seen him hit the bloody ball off the square.

“The whole point was that it was a cup final. I had to take away from him the worry about getting out. I forced him to do it by relieving him of responsibility. If he got out, he had an excuse.

“He could say, ‘it’s the captain’s fault.’”

Whatever the reality, Boycott’s performance was sensational.

In front of 25,000 spectators, he hit three sixes and 15 fours, while Close weighed in with one six and seven fours. Trueman, promoted to No 4, clubbed 24 before John Hampshire (38 not out) and Wilson (11 not out) rounded off the innings.

In reply, Surrey were soon in distress as Trueman reduced them from 27-0 to 27-3.

The great fast bowler had John Edrich caught by Illingworth, disturbed the stumps of Bill Smith and then had Ken Barrington caught behind.

It provided the platform for Illingworth to seal victory with splendid figures of 5-29 from 11.4 overs.

The off-spinner’s victims were Stewart Storey, Mike Edwards, David Gibson, Arnold Long and David Sydenham as Surrey had no answer to his guile and skill.

Only Ron Tindall, who made 57 out of a total of 142, delayed Yorkshire for long as just four Surrey batsmen reached double figures.