Yorkshire at 150: Long wait for success finally ends

Raymond Illingworth, captain and manager of a Yorkshire club riven by infighting and internecine warfare, had plenty on his plate on-and-off the field.

Off it, the club were at loggerheads with Geoffrey Boycott, their premier batsman; on it, they were struggling in the County Championship and would finish the 1983 season bottom for the first time in their history.

But despite all the problems facing Yorkshire cricket at that time, not to mention him personally, Illingworth inspired them to their first trophy since 1969, topping the bowling averages with 20 wickets at 18 to help win the John Player Special League.

“Looking back, I remember one thing in particular,” said Illingworth, who turned 80 in June. “I was quite friendly with John Thicknesse, the cricket correspondent of the London Evening Standard, and he rang me at the start of the season and said what chance have you got this year?

“I said we haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance of winning the Championship because we aren’t good enough yet, but I think we can probably win the John Player League.

“On me saying that, John put a fiver on us to win the John Player League, so he was extremely pleased that we won the trophy.

“We hadn’t won anything at Yorkshire since the great days of the 1960s, so it was a very special and satisfying achievement.”

It was one that Illingworth attributes to two key factors.

First, greater discipline with the ball which saw a dramatic reduction in the number of extras conceded, and, second, his decision to play two spinners in himself and Phil Carrick.

“Phil and myself bowled a lot of overs that year and we cut down as a team on the number of wides and no-balls,” said Illingworth.

“The year before the seam bowlers had bowled far too many of them and I said to the lads at the start of the season that if we could cut those out we’d be 10 per cent better.

“The bowling was a lot more accurate in 1983, everyone seemed to chip in with wickets, and we also had runs throughout the side. It was a really good team effort and showed what could be achieved through discipline and good organisation.”

Illingworth, who doubled up as manager of the side, presided over 10 victories in 16 matches.

Yorkshire finished level on points with Somerset but prevailed by virtue of achieving more away wins.

The club’s 40-over form was in spectacular contrast to their Championship work, which saw them win only one of 23 matches. But Illingworth, who was sacked at the end of the season as a new committee swept into power, believes Yorkshire were a better Championship side than their position suggested.

“To finish bottom that year was a bit of a false position,” added Illingworth, who took 32 wickets in the tournament that summer at 29.71.

“Nobody whopped us or anything like that; we probably lost one match badly and had about three games when we had the opposition nine-down and couldn’t get the last wicket, so we should probably have finished halfway up the table.

“It was a difficult time for Yorkshire cricket in general and I was quite happy to go after that season to be honest because of all the problems with the Boycott saga.

“It wasn’t so much Geoffrey as his cronies; they were all writing to the press every day, criticising and carping, and my family and I got fed up with it all.”

It is inconceivable nowadays to think that someone could play professional cricket into their 50s; even more so that they could play it as successfully as Illingworth did.

But a man who scored just under 25,000 first-class runs and took just over 2,000 wickets utilised all of his skill and experience.

“I didn’t do bad for a 51-year-old and I kept myself fairly fit,” added Illingworth.

“But it was hard work as I was playing most of the Championship games as well.

“Nowadays, the players are fit but probably not as bowling fit as my generation were.

“People forget we also played football in the winter – sometimes twice a week – and it’s difficult to imagine modern players bowling 500 overs a season, let alone the 1,000-odd overs that was common in my day.”