Brian Close - Early Years

Early Years

Close was born into a working class family in Town Street, Rawdon, Yorkshire, on 24 February 1931. His parents were Harry, a weaver, and Esther (née Barrett). He was the second eldest of five boys and a girl. The family lived in a series of council houses in Rawdon, Guiseley and Yeadon. Although these houses were small, they each had a back yard, where the young Brian could practise cricket with his father. Harry Close was himself a keen cricketer, who kept wicket and was a big hitter in the Bradford Cricket League, although he never attained the standard of the Yorkshire county team.

The hero and dominating figure in Close's home town of Rawdon was Hedley Verity, a great England and Yorkshire cricketer in the period before the Second World War. The Verity family continued to live in Rawdon, and for a time the Close family lived in the Canada Estate, where Verity had once lived. At Rawdon Littlemoor primary school Close was taught by Grace Verity, Hedley's sister, and he was friends with two of Verity's children, Wilfred and Douglas. Later, Close went to Aireborough Grammar School, where Verity was the best-known alumnus. Close's early years were surrounded by images of local cricketing greatness.

At school, Close was a good all-around sportsman, and an excellent cricketer: Aireborough went unbeaten in the six cricketing summers while Close was there. Close dominated junior level cricket in the area, both within and outside schools. He joined Rawdon Cricket Club in 1942, when he was eleven years of age, and was almost immediately selected to play for the under-18 side and for the Second XI. However, he also excelled as a student, and seriously considered becoming a doctor. He had the offer of a university place on completion of his period of compulsory military service, but turned this offer down.

As well as cricket, Close was also proficient at football, to such an extent that he was signed as an amateur by Leeds United Football Club. He became the first Leeds player to play international football at youth level, when in October 1948 he played for England against Scotland at Pittodrie Park in Aberdeen. However, after gaining a regular place in Yorkshire's county cricket in 1949, his sporting ambitions became focused on cricket. His excellence at the sport, and the Yorkshire peoples' enthusiasm for it, encouraged Bradford MP Maurice Webb to request that Close be allowed to complete the 1949 season for Yorkshire, before commencing his National Service.