(Part 1) 1964 - 1975.
| Geoffrey Boycott, the son of a Yorkshire miner, came from the same
cricketing background as other Yorkshire greats like Herbert Sutcliffe
and Sir Leonard Hutton. As a run-hungry youngster he batted alongside
the likes of future umpire Dickie Bird and TV personality Michael
Parkinson, and, despite his spectacles, it was clear that the young man
was going somewhere. Boycott made a habit of scoring Test runs at
Headingley. It was there he made 246 not out against India in 1967,
after which he was dropped for being too boring. He made his Test debut
against the Australians in 1964, scoring 113 at the Oval, and meeting up
there for the first time with his most successful Test opening partner,
John Edrich. His earliest successes, though, were in his contrasting
partnership with the dashing Warwickshire left handed amateur Bob
Barber. In company with him Boycott made 117 at Port Elizabeth in
1964-65, the last Test England played there before the apartheid schism.
In Australia in 1965-66 he and the exuberant Barber put on an opening
partnership of 234 at Sydney. In 1968 injury put him out of the final
Tests of the Ashes series, but he was a major contributor on Colin
Cowdrey's tour of West Indies in 1968-69. In 1969 he had an unhappy
period against New Zealand seam bowler Dick Motz, and was to have an
equally humiliating time against the gentle left arm seam of Indian
Eknath Solkar in 1971, but in between times he and Edrich had
contributed the bulk of the runs on Raymond Illingworth's successful
Ashes campaign of 1970-71. The centuries rolled on at intervals,
climaxing with 99 and 112 which gave England a win on a spinners' wicket
in Trinidad on Mike Denness' tour. Then followed a self-imposed
international exile of several years. (Bob Harragan) |
England's Geoff Boycott (for a change seen here as a bowler) in action on 20th. June 1979.
Photo G. Herringshaw. ©
Test Profile (Part 2) 1977 - 1982.
| It is one of the most famous images in cricket: a crowd roar, an
umbrella twirls, and Geoffrey Boycott raises his bat to a stadium full
of Yorkshiremen passionate for his success. He has just scored his 100th
century, at Headingley, the first man to do it in a Test match. It has
taken him more than five hours, but it has been five hours when
probability has dozed and destiny has taken control. Boycott later
claimed it was not a foregone conclusion, but everyone else in cricket's
world knew it was. He went on to score 191. Boycott had returned to
Test cricket after a self-imposed exile against Australia in 1977,
running out Derek Randall in front of his home crowd at Trent Bridge
before going on to a century. He captained England in three Test matches
in New Zealand in 1977-78 after Mike Brearley was injured, although in
one innings he was deemed to be batting too slowly for England's good
and the team conspired to have Ian Botham run him out. His solidity had
much to do with England's Ashes win in 1978-79 and he scored 99 not out
against Australia in 1979-80. In 1980 he was bowled by Michael Holding
at the end of what is regarded as the fastest over ever bowled. In
Botham's Test at Headingley in 1981 Boycott's stubborn second innings
partnership with Peter Willey, in which they saw off Lillee and
Alderman, was the real beginning of the revival which saw England win
after following on. Boycott appeared in the World Cup in 1979 making 57
in the final when his irregular seam bowling, bowled in a cap (see photo
above), was savaged by Collis King and Viv Richards. (Bob Harragan) |