Editing Brian Close (section)

==Yorkshire and England==

===Debut season===
In February 1949, Close underwent a medical examination with the [[British Army]], but due to an injury he had suffered playing football, his call-up was delayed by a few months, allowing him to continue into pre-season training with Yorkshire.{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=13}} His performance in pre-season was such that he was given a trial for the county in the two [[First-class cricket|first-class]] matches against [[Cambridge University Cricket Club|Cambridge]] and [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford]] Universities. He made his debut on 11 May 1949, alongside [[Fred Trueman]] and [[Frank Lowson]] – all three went on to play for England.<ref name="tough-guy">{{cite web |url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20573453/cricket-tough-guy |title=Cricket's Tough Guy |last=Hodgson |first=Derek |date=14 September 2015 |website=ESPNcricinfo |access-date=25 February 2020}}</ref> Close impressed the Yorkshire hierarchy enough for his trial to be extended into the [[County Championship]] season;<ref name="coty"/> [[Bill Bowes]], one of Yorkshire's coaches, declared that he was the "natural successor to the veteran [[all-rounder]] [[Frank Smailes]]".<ref name="tough-guy"/> Close continued to perform well, particularly his bowling; in his fifth first-class game, against [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]], Close took five for 58 in Essex's first innings, then top-scored with an [[Not out|undefeated]] 88 [[Run (cricket)|run]]s in the Yorkshire innings.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yorkshire v Essex at Leeds, 25–27 May 1949 |website=ESPNcricinfo|url=http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1940S/1949/ENG_LOCAL/CC/YORKS_ESSEX_CC_25-27MAY1949.html|access-date=26 February 2020}}</ref> His performances for Yorkshire earned him a place in the [[North v South]] match, which was also being used as a trial for selection for the upcoming [[Test cricket|Test matches]] against [[New Zealand national cricket team|New Zealand]]. Close scored two runs, and did not take a wicket; ''[[The Times]]'' described his batting as a "disappointing feature" of the match, but noted that despite not taking any wickets, "he bowled his off-breaks round the wicket well enough."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS101664963/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=TTDA&xid=c543be9e |title=Test Trial at Edgbaston |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |issue=51398 |page=6 |date=3 June 1949 |via=Gale}}</ref>

Close continued to do well for Yorkshire and was selected to play for [[Gentlemen v Players|the Players against the Gentlemen]], at [[Lord's]] in July. Unofficially, this prestigious match also served as a Test match trial,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS100878573/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=TTDA&xid=8d1a45d8 |title=A Historic Fixture |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |issue=51432 |page=6 |date=13 July 1949 |via=Gale}}</ref> and Close scored 65 runs, the most amongst the Players, in what was described as a "most commendable performance" by ''The Times''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS134433007/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=TTDA&xid=aa0252f4 |title=The Gentlemen Recover |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |issue=51434 |page=8 |date=15 July 1949 |via=Gale}}</ref> During the match, Close got caught out by cricket's antiquated social etiquette. When he reached his half-century he was congratulated by the Gentlemen's wicket-keeper, [[Billy Griffith]], who said: "Well played, Brian", to which Close responded: "Thank you, Billy". Ten days later, he was called to see [[Brian Sellers]], a member of the Yorkshire committee, who reprimanded Close for his effrontery in not addressing an amateur player as "Mister".{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=7}} Despite this rebuke, the Yorkshire committee secured the assistance of the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Bradford Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Bradford Central]], [[Maurice Webb (politician)|Maurice Webb]], who successfully requested that Close be allowed to complete the 1949 season for Yorkshire, before commencing his National Service.{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=13}}{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=23}}

Close was then selected to play for England in the third Test match at [[Old Trafford Cricket Ground|Old Trafford]] against the [[New Zealand cricket team in England in 1949|touring New Zealanders]]; a decision praised by ''The Times'', who described him as "a young all-round cricketer of such promise as to demand immediate encouragement."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS68897010/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=TTDA&xid=418c5806 |title=England's Test Team |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |issue=51436 |page=4 |date=18 July 1949 |via=Gale}}</ref> In the match, Close became [[English cricket team|England's]] youngest Test player, aged 18 years and 149 days,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/209994.html |title=Test matches: Youngest players |website=ESPNcricinfo |access-date=26 February 2020}}</ref> a record he still held at his death, and which was surpassed only in 2022. He came in to bat when England needed quick runs, his instruction from [[Freddie Brown (cricketer)|Freddie Brown]], the captain, being to "have a look at a couple and then give it a go".{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=11}} Close duly played two balls back to the [[Bowler (cricket)|bowler]], then hit out for the [[boundary (cricket)|boundary]], only to be caught in the outfield for a score of nought. He had previously taken one wicket for 39 runs during the first New Zealand innings.{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=11}} In his autobiography, ''I Don't Bruise Easily'', his early Test call-up is described "an albatross round [his] neck", but Close later attributed this phrase to the book's shadow writer, [[Don Mosey]].<ref name="ESPN Cricket Monthly Interview">{{cite web |url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20573291/no-idea-where-courage-came-from |title=I have no idea where the courage came from |last1=Gollapudi |first1=Nagraj |last2=Close |first2=Brian |work=ESPNcricinfo |date=15 September 2015 |access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref> During the late-season [[Scarborough Festival]], he became the youngest player to achieve the [[Double (cricket)|double]], of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a single first-class season.<ref name="wisden-obit">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/1001597.html |editor-last=Booth |editor-first=Lawrence |chapter=Obituary: Brian Close |title=[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2016]] |via=Cricinfo |publisher=John Wisden & Co. Ltd |location=Alton, Hampshire |pages=199–202 |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4729-2454-4}}</ref>

===Tour to Australia in 1950===
[[File:1950-51MCC.jpg|thumb|right|Brian Close ''(pictured middle row, third from the right)'' with the England team which toured Australia in {{nobr|1950–51}}]]
Close began his National Service on 6 October 1949, in the [[Royal Corps of Signals]] at [[Catterick Garrison|Catterick Army Training Depot]].{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=12}} Another football injury, picked up during training, meant that he spent his first month of military service excused from duties. Once he was fit again, he was given weekend passes from the army to play football for Leeds.{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=15}} During one of these games he was badly injured again: playing against [[Newcastle United F. C.|Newcastle United]] he hurt his thigh in a collision with [[Ted Robledo]]. Showing the stubbornness that he later became famous for, Close played the rest of the game,{{sfn|Hill|2003|pp=23–24}} but by the time he reported back for duty the next day, it was badly swollen and painful. He was excused from duties again, but not offered any treatment by the army. After around six weeks, he travelled home on leave and got some heat treatment from the Leeds United physiotherapist, but there was little progress until just before Christmas, when another examination by the army revealed [[ossification]] of the thigh.{{sfn|Close|Mosey|1979|p=16}} Two months of treatment and bed rest followed, which Close thinks saved his career, he said that otherwise: "the injury would have finished me. I would never had bent my leg again."{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=24}}

Close returned to fitness in time for the [[1950 English cricket season]],{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=24}} though little of it was first-class: he appeared for Yorkshire once, and made three first-class appearances for the [[Combined Services cricket team]].<ref name="fcmatches">{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Yorkshire/Players/0/858/First-Class_Matches.html |title=First-class matches played by Brian Close (786) |website=CricketArchive |access-date=5 April 2020 |via=Yorkshire CCC}}</ref> He was playing plenty of other cricket; he played in inter-services matches during the week, and obtained weekend passes to play league cricket for Leeds on Saturdays and charity matches on Sundays. Between playing football and cricket, he had little time for anything else, so much so according to Close, he was never given a job in the army, as he would have no time in which to do it.{{sfn|Hill|2003|pp=24–25}} His performances attracted the attention of the England cricket captain, Brown, who wanted Close to be included in the English party to tour [[Australia national cricket team|Australia]] for the [[1950–51 Ashes series]]. Brown consulted Close's county coach, former England bowler [[Bill Bowes]], who pleaded with Brown not to select Close, arguing that such early promotion would damage him as a player.{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=1}} Brown ignored Bowes and selected Close.

Close's call-up to the Australian touring party attracted considerable press interest, and a press conference was called at Catterick to give the press a chance to question him. However, his moment of glory also gave rise to controversy, when one pressman found out that Close was "confined to barracks" for disciplinary reasons at the time his call-up was announced: he had absented himself from an army cricket match.{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=28}} The pressman promised to stay silent, but a week later a clerk on the camp newspaper telephoned the ''Daily Express'' with the news. However, Close still toured; his National Service was suspended so that he could do so,<ref name="CA Profile">{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Articles/0/344.html|title=A profile of Brian Close|last=Ward|first=John|publisher=Cricket Archive|year=2003|access-date=21 August 2009}}</ref> as touring sportsmen were considered to be ambassadors for the United Kingdom.<ref name="coty"/>

Close was the youngest player on the tour, and had little in common with the rest of the party; by the end, he was not even on talking terms with most of them.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} After a reasonable start, making a century on his First Class debut in Australia, Close faltered, and then became injured, with a badly pulled groin muscle. He was selected to play in the second Test, which England lost by 28&nbsp;runs. After Australia were dismissed for 194, England had collapsed to 54 for 4 when Close came in to bat, with only eight deliveries to go before the lunch interval on the second day. Misjudging the bounce on the [[Melbourne]] [[wicket#One end of the pitch|wicket]], which was somewhat different from the bounce of English wickets, he swept a ball from [[Jack Iverson]] only to get a top edge to [[Sam Loxton]], fielding behind square leg. [[E. W. Swanton]] called it the worst shot he had seen played by a first-class batsman.<ref>Swanton, E.W. (1975) ''Swanton in Australia with MCC 1946–1975''. Fontana/Collins. p. 80. {{ISBN|0002162369}}.</ref> The dressing room was silent when he returned. Brown, when advised that Close was a bit down and needed consolation, replied "Let the blighter stew. He deserves it."{{sfn|Hill|2003|p=38}}

Later in [[Tasmania]], Close was ordered to play despite doctor's advice to rest, and as he tried to nurse his injury he acquired a reputation for malingering and insubordination. He was made to play in six of the next seven games. When England won a Test match in Australia for the first time in 13&nbsp;years in the final Test, Close was not present. Nowadays, someone in Close's position would be carefully man-managed, and looked after by captain and team manager. But times were different then, and the Yorkshire stalwarts were proved right: he had been picked too early, and would never be a regular Test player.<ref name="Hill">{{cite web|last=Hill|first=Alan|title=Life of Brian|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/417532.html |website=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=17 February 2011|date=4 August 2009}}</ref>

===Consolidation, 1951 to 1958===
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:Brian Close.jpg|150|thumb|right|Close in action.]] -->

The years between 1951 and 1958 were a period of career consolidation for Close, who achieved 1,000&nbsp;runs in a season five times.<ref name="FC Batting">{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/858/f_Batting_by_Season.html|title=First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Brian Close|publisher=Cricket Archive|access-date=21 August 2009}}</ref> Immediately after the tour to Australia Close had a good season in 1951, playing for the Combined Services, including a century against the touring [[South Africa national cricket team|South Africans]]. At the end of his National Service in October 1951, he signed for [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]], and tried briefly to combine playing football with his cricket for Yorkshire. This proved impossible; although Close received permission from Yorkshire captain [[Norman Yardley]] to leave the first match of the 1952 cricket season early, to play football for Arsenal, this leave was rescinded by the match manager. Close arrived late at Arsenal and was sacked.<ref name="CA Profile"/>

Close enjoyed a good 1952 season at Yorkshire, achieving another double, but played no Test cricket. He played football, for [[Bradford City A.F.C.|Bradford City]] this time, and in doing so picked up a serious knee injury which ended his professional footballing career. It also threatened to end his cricket career—Close played only two first-class matches in the 1953 cricket season.<ref name="CA Profile"/>

In 1954 Close scored his first first-class century for Yorkshire, an undefeated 123 against the touring [[Pakistan national cricket team|Pakistanis]]. In 1955 he scored his first county championship century. In that year he played one Test match against [[South Africa national cricket team|South Africa]], and at the end of the season was only 3&nbsp;wickets short of another 1,000 runs/100 wickets double. He was in the selectors' sights again, and was picked for the tour to Pakistan in 1955/56. This was not a full England tour, and no Test matches were played. Close returned to the full England side in 1957, playing in the first two Tests against the [[West Indian cricket team|West Indies]], but did not perform well enough to secure a regular Test place.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

Meanwhile, in this period, Yorkshire had not won a single [[County Championship]]. At the beginning of 1958 a new captain, [[Ronnie Burnet]], was appointed. Burnet was 40&nbsp;years old, without first-class cricket experience, and seemed an unlikely choice to restore to Yorkshire's fortunes.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} It was believed by the Yorkshire committee that Burnet would inject some discipline into the Yorkshire team, but initially the appointment caused problems. Several senior players left the club; [[Johnny Wardle]], Yorkshire's top bowler and Close's preferred choice of captain, was sacked for disciplinary reasons.<ref name="CA Profile"/>

===Yorkshire as county champions===
Burnet, aided by Close, was successful in 1959, when Yorkshire at last won the county championship. At the end of that season, as Close later heard, Burnet was told that, having just won the championship, he could have another season as captain, but, if he did, Close would then take over.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} If Burnet resigned immediately, [[Vic Wilson (cricketer)|Vic Wilson]] could take over as captain in preference to Close. Burnet chose to step down straight-away. Once Wilson took over, with Close as the senior professional Yorkshire enjoyed a period of almost unbroken success, winning the county championship again in 1960, taking second place in 1961, and winning again in 1962.

===More controversy===

During this period Close was called up for his seventh Test in 1961, against Australia.<ref>{{cite web|title=4th Test: England v Australia at Manchester, 27 July-1 August 1961|publisher=Cricinfo|url=http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1960S/1961/AUS_IN_ENG/AUS_ENG_T4_27JUL-01AUG1961.html|access-date=28 May 2008}}</ref> This match, which at one point England appeared certain to win, turned to disaster, with Close bearing the main blame for England's defeat.

England were chasing a total of 256 runs to win the match, with just under four hours left to play. Scoring rapidly, they reached 150 for 1 wicket. Then [[Ted Dexter]] and [[Peter May (cricketer)|Peter May]] got out in quick succession to Benaud, who was pitching his [[leg spin|leg breaks]] into the rough outside the right-handers' leg stump. This brought Close to the crease. May, the captain, was instructing his players to go for the runs and secure the victory. Close accordingly took a calculated risk, and chose to hit out. He took one [[six (cricket)|six]] off Benaud, but to the tenth ball he faced he played another unorthodox shot which [[Norm O'Neill|Norman O'Neill]] caught above his head with two hands. Purists were outraged, and as England collapsed to 201 all out and a 54 run defeat, Close took most of the blame, with some commentators saying that he should never play for England again.<ref name="CA Profile"/>