Magnificent Seven

By Andrew Collomosse

At the start of the 1959 season, Yorkshire had not won an outright County Championship for 13 years, in those days an unthinkable scenario for White Rose players and supporters. By 1969, they had set the record straight in the most emphatic manner, winning seven Championships and lifting the Gillette Cup twice to establish their place in the pantheon of County Cricket's greatest teams.

The Yorkshire side of the Sixties featured some of the most famous players in the history of the game: Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Raymond Illingworth and Geoffrey Boycott. And alongside them were the men whose deeds guaranteed them a place in White Rose folklore but whose stories have, for the most part, not been told before. Men like Philip Sharpe, slip fielder supreme, wicketkeeper Jim Binks, who made 412 successive first-class appearances, Mel Ryan and Bob Platt, Trueman's new ball partners, and Richard Hutton, son of Sir Leonard.

They are just some of the players who will feature in Magnificent Seven, the story, in their own words, of the champion cricketers who shaped Yorkshire's Championship Decade.

Fifteen out of the remaining sixteen players from this incredible team have contributed to Magnificent Seven. They each take a year to discuss in more and players who are sadly no longer with us are also remembered:

Bryan Stott on 1959 and Ronnie Burnet, Doug Padgett on 1960, Mel Ryan & Bob Platt on 1961 and Vic Wilson, Brian Bolus & Mike Cowan on 1962, John Hampshire on 1963 and Tony, Nicholson, Jim Binks on 1964, Richard Hutton on 1965, Don Wilson on 1966 and Fred Trueman, Geoff Cope on 967, Ken Taylor on 1968 and Chris Balderstone, Phil Sharpe on 1969.

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Reviews and related articles

Wisden Cricketer, 12th November 2010
Collomosse has fondly and conscienctiosuly drawn out a host of memories from Yorkshire's greatest era.

The Cricket Society Newsletter, 17th October 2010
...a very enjoyable book

John Hampshire speaking to the York Press, 12th August 2010
It's excellent. It's a pretty true reflection of Yorkshire cricket, both on and off the field, in that period of time. It was a unique period, and I doubt that it will ever be done again

Bradford Telegraph and Argus, 8th August 2010
Magnificent Seven charts a decade of Yorkshire titles

Sheffield Telegraph, 5th August 2010
The fascination of the book is to recall more unsung players such as Bryan Stott, Mel Ryan, Geoff Cope and Bob Platt. All speak of a tremendous team spirit despite the occasional disputes, sackings and suspensions.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 22nd July 2010
It's an engaging, amusing and highly informative read because the players involved tell in their own words of the team's achievements and the characters who reigned supreme.

Brian Close, 12th July 2010
They were a magnificent group of lads, they really were. On and off the field. A team in the true sense of the word. Totally committed working 100 per cent for one another. Above all, we were all Yorkshiremen, which meant such a lot to everyone.

Yorkshire Post, 28th June 2010
Collomosse has...produced a minor masterpiece of a cricket book...There is much talk of the game — nothing wrong with that in a cricket book — but there is also humour, especially from Platt, Ryan and Cowan; humility; sadness, music; high-s...

Derek Hodgson, YCCC website, 21st June 2010
This is a book that has been waiting to be written for almost half a century.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club, 19th June 2010
This is a book that has been waiting to be written for almost half a century...The book is embellished with some excellent photographs, rarely seen, from Ron Deaton's collection. With this work Andrew Collomosse has won a permanent place on Yorkshire b...

Ray Illingworth, 5th June 2010
It was a marvellous time for Yorkshire cricket, a golden era that no county has ever come close to matching in over half a century

Review on The Sports Bookshelf, 16th May 2010
Collomosse grew up in awe of the likes of Close, Fred Trueman, Ray Illingworth, John Hampshire, Philip Sharpe and Jimmy Binks. They and the other members of that all-conquering Yorkshire team were his boyhood heroes, their names every bit as magical as...