Johnny Lawrence  John Lawrence (29 March 1911 - 10 December 1988), known as "Johnny", was a diminutive Yorkshire-born all-round cricketer whose middle or lower order batting and leg-break and googly bowling were of great importance to Somerset in the 10 cricket seasons immediately after the Second World War. Born at Carlton, Leeds, on 29 March 1911, Lawrence made his name in the Bradford Cricket League in the 1930s, but was not able to break into the strong Yorkshire side, though he played Second Eleven cricket at Minor Counties level. He qualified by residence to play for Somerset at the end of 1939 but then had to wait until after World War II before making his debut, by which time he was 35 years old. Short and enthusiastic, Lawrence was a pugnacious batsman who, according to one account, "could on occasions bat with irremovable resolve". As a bowler, in the description of the cricket writer Alan Gibson, Lawrence was "one of the slowest bowlers I have ever seen. There were times when he would deliberately bowl slower and slower, until he almost reached the state of Sir James Barrie, who declared that he could bowl a ball so slow that if he did not like the look of it he could run after it and catch it." Lawrence was an instant success in Somerset's 1946 side, winning his county cap in his first season, scoring 968 first-class runs and taking 66 wickets. The wickets were fewer and more expensive in 1947, but he took his first five-wicket haul in an innings with six for 53 against Hampshire at Weston-super-Mare. At the end of the 1947 season, though a Somerset player, he was picked for the North team in the regular North v South match at Harrogate. The 1948 season saw the start of Lawrence's best bowling years, though his batting fell away. His aggregate of wickets rose from 45 in 1947 to 82, and the bowling average fell from more than 36 runs per wicket to just 22. His two best bowling performances came against Yorkshire, with six for 29 in the match at Harrogate followed by six for 35 in the return match at Taunton. At the end of the season, he played for an England XI in a match at Cardiff Arms Park to celebrate Glamorgan's first County Championship, the only non-Test player in the side. But that and the North v South match the previous year remained the extent of his representative cricket. In 1949, he took 100 wickets for the first time, finishing with 107 at a bowling average of 22.73, but his batting declined even further and he finished without a single 50 to his name all season and with a batting average of less than 14 runs per innings.