Happy Birthday Kenneth Taylor! Who he?
The Daily Telegraph birthdays list tells me that Ken is 80 today, so
why not tell you about a sportsman who has other irons in his fire.
Ken played cricket for Yorkshire and
England, three tests between 1959 and 1964. As a spin bowler, he had
several “darts up his sleeve to get out stubborn batsmen”. His
father worked in the textile mills on a loom as a weaver and his
maternal grandfather was a ventriloquist who operated a Punch and
Judy show on Blackpool seafront.
Brother Jeff also played football for
Huddersfield, Fulham and Brentford and went to London University to
read Geography and he joined the Royal College of Music and became an
opera singer.
Ken played football for Huddersfield
Town from 1953 to 1965, appearing 250 times and England U23s briefly,
before going to Bradford Park Avenue (then a league side) from 1965-7
and finally to Sligo Rangers in Ireland, for a few games 1968.
On the 21 December 1957 he played in an
extraordinary league game between Huddersfield and Charlton Athletic.
With the London side down to 10 men, the Terriers went on a rampage
and were 5-1 up with 27 minutes to go when Johnny Summers went on a
spree and scored 5 goals, as well as assisting in his teams other
two. Final score 6-7 to Charlton. Never before (or again) has a
Football League team scored 6 and lost.
In the summer Ken played for Yorkshire
CCC between 1959-68, a team that dominated County Championship
cricket and won the third Gillette One Day Final in 1965.
Ken played 313 games for his county, a dour batsman, scoring over 13,000 runs at an average of nearly 27, he also took 131 wickets
and 150 catches, fielding was what he was best known for. He only
played a few games for England but he did open the batting with
Arthur Milton against India and scored 160 against Australia on
Yorkshire soil at Sheffield in 1964.
Having broken his finger in the game he
did not play for his country again, but truned to art which was his
favoured skill. He studied at the Huddersfield School of Art and the
Slade School of Fine Art in 1956, eventually becoming a professional
artist, teaching in Norfolk for 30 years. His biography “Ken
Taylor: Drawn to Sport” by Steven Chalke was published in 2006. His
son Nick also played first class cricket.
No comments:
Post a Comment