Sir Len

[fredfertang]

Sir Len


Arguably the greatest English batsmen of them all, Martin looks at the legend that is Sir Leonard Hutton

 

[kyear2]

Absolutely brilliant piece.

The fact that it was about one of my favorite cricketers didn't hurt either.

 

[Coronis]

Emphasis on arguably

 

[Howe_zat]

Been looking forward to this one for a while and was not disappointed - doesn't half drive home the nature of run scoring in the postwar years, and the value of those few they did manage to get.

 

[Goughy]

If I am being honest I think the article is a little short on the significance of him being England's first professional captain and the 54/55 tour deserves more than a paragraph. Also, Hutton being passed over for Yorkshire captaincy is an important chapter in his career and one of the more interesting stories is his role in Trueman being black-balled from touring. Also, he retired due to lumbago rather than arthritis.

However, I cant be too hard on an article that ends with the perfect summary of Len Hutton. It is right to focus on him as a person rather than just as a cricketer. As my grandmother and plenty of others used to say - "Len Hutton was a lovely man."

 

[kyear2]

Emphasis on arguably

Yea, of course there is Hobbs as well.

 

[fredfertang]

If I am being honest I think the article is a little short on the significance of him being England's first professional captain and the 54/55 tour deserves more than a paragraph. Also, Hutton being passed over for Yorkshire captaincy is an important chapter in his career and one of the more interesting stories is his role in Trueman being black-balled from touring. Also, he retired due to lumbago rather than arthritis.

However, I cant be too hard on an article that ends with the perfect summary of Len Hutton. It is right to focus on him as a person rather than just as a cricketer. As my grandmother and plenty of others used to say - "Len Hutton was a lovely man."

The difficulty with the sort of profile I enjoy writing is that for men like Hutton, Compton, Hammond, Hobbs and their like I have to make sacrifices if I want to keep a piece to a reasonable length

I think too many more than 3,000 words and you get a lot of tl;dr so that's the length I aim for, though I usually go on beyond that, but past 4,000 I reckon is too far - I lack the journalistic skills to be able to edit my own writing effectively so whereas with my piece on Richard Hutton, and his one season of Test cricket and limited time in the First Class game, I could write everything I wanted to include doing that with his old man I'd have needed 10,000 words at least

So I decided not to go very far with Len's county career and any detailed treatment of the significance of his being the first professional captain is a digression that takes up to many words - I'm conscious that my writing is discursive enough as it is - not sure why though as a legal training encourages the avoidance of that (and anyone who makes the obvious comment on that that I must be a crap lawyer can foxtrot oscar ) As to the 54/55 tour whilst he was the mastermind behind the win, which I think I made clear, the detailed story of the series itself belongs to others, particularly Tyson of course, but also Statham, Appleyard, May and Cowdrey

As to the end of his career his autobiography seems to me to say that the lumbago that he had played with throughout the 1950s finally gave way to arthritis and it was on confirmation of that that he finally called it quits - so I think we're both right on that point.

I'm glad you enjoyed the final paragraph - I'm afraid I can't tell you where to find that programme with Trelford but if you ever get the chance it is compelling viewing and quite moving, if for no other reason than Len comes across throughout as such a terrific bloke - he must have had it in him to be as tough as old boots, but there was no hint of that at all

 

[Burgey]

Lovely article mate. What a grand cricketer he was.

 

[Red]

Brilliant article. I haven't read a Hutton bio, he's one of my favourite cricketers.