Cricket's tough guy

Posterity's memory of Brian Close is of a tall, balding, near middle-aged left hander taking a fearful battering from West Indies' fast bowlers, without helmet or any other protection other than a box and pads, in a Test match at Old Trafford.

His every ambition that day in 1976 was to demonstrate to the opposition that he could not be hurt; the following day the cameras were allowed to picture his bare torso, with a right side showing seven big ugly bruises.

Yet Dennis Brian Close was much, much more than a gung-ho hero in a black-and-white movie. A prodigious exponent of all ball games (contracts with Leeds United and Arsenal; a single handicap golfer) he came from a family embedded in the uncompromising cricket of the Yorkshire leagues. Physically powerful, he was playing for Rawdon at 11 years, following his father and grandfather into the same club side.

He made such an impression at the Yorkshire nets in March 1949, aged 18, as a powerful left-hand batsman who could bowl right-arm seam up or offspin that Bill Bowes pronounced him as a natural successor to the veteran allrounder Frank Smailes. Norman Yardley, his county captain, was impressed enough to include him, with two other trialists, in Yorkshire's team to play Cambridge University at Fenner's that May.

An onlooker recalled: "We saw a young quick bowler called Trueman, who was erratic and an older opening batsman named Lowson who didn't stay long enough to allow judgement. But we also saw a lad named Close who looked every inch a cricketer of promise. There was even a rumour round the ring that he could bowl both right and left-handed."

It was an auspicious day for Yorkshire and England. The bowler turned out to be world class, the opener developed so quickly he was referred to as Len Hutton's shadow and Close, in his first season, had by mid July, scored 579 runs and taken 67 wickets (all first-class). Dazzled selectors chose him for a Test trial then for Players against the Gentlemen - he was the top scorer with 65 - and finally, still 18 years old, for the third Test against New Zealand at Old Trafford.

He completed the double (1,000 runs and 100 wickets) at the Scarborough Festival and was then called up for national service in the Royal Signals which meant that, in 1950, he played only one match for Yorkshire. He was nevertheless chosen, despite Yorkshire's appeal for caution, for the England tour of Australia the following winter and had a miserable time. He was twice injured and remembered little sympathy from the captain Freddie Brown and senior members of the side. Never an establishment man, that experience left Close a natural dissident for the rest of his life.

For a spell, his career remained in the shade. A knee injury with Arsenal settled the argument of his career direction and he did achieve the double again in his second full season (1952) before another football injury, with Bradford City, left him convalescing for 18 months.

Close was almost the forgotten man when in 1954, playing purely as a batsman, he volunteered to test his knee by bowling again, and finished the season with 66 wickets. The following summer, Close was in full glory again.

He was a volcanic performer at his peak, a batsman of concrete defence, a spectacular hitter, a bowler of unquenchable optimism whether using seam or spin, possibly cricket's bravest close fielder.

In his 28-year career, he scored almost 35,000 runs at an average of 33, no mean feat in the days of uncovered pitches, took 1171 wickets at 26 and 813 catches as well as one stumping. Stories of injuries occurred and dismissed through his suicidal close-catching read like a Norse saga. "Be ready for rebounds," he would advise Yorkshire's wicketkeeper Jimmy Binks.

He was picked for the Old Trafford Test against Australia in 1961 only to be excoriated for the manner of his dismissal against Richie Benaud when his attempts to attack the legspinner went awry and England lost.

Close was still regarded as an erratic genius when he was surprisingly named Yorkshire's captain in 1963, one committee decision that must be described as brilliant. Under Close, Yorkshire won the Championship four times and added two Gillette Cups making him the third most successful captain, after Hawke and Sellers, in the club's history.

His record demanded a recall by England in the 1966 series against the West Indies, who possessed two of the world's fastest bowlers in Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith. His outstanding innings came at Lord's when Hall broke Colin Cowdrey's arm and Close responded by advancing down the wicket to the pace bowlers to put them off their length. With West Indies 3-0 up in the series, he replaced Cowdrey as captain, immediately reinstated Ray Illingworth, his trusted lieutenant in Yorkshire, and won the last Test by an innings and 34 runs. He was thus the natural choice to lead against India and Pakistan in 1967, winning five and drawing one of six Tests.

Close seemed invulnerable but he had been warned that the selectors were nervous about his aggressive style before the edgy winter tour of the West Indies. "Keep your nose clean," he was advised. A furore after a draw at Edgbaston, where Yorkshire were accused of deliberately wasting time to prevent Warwickshire winning was followed by a newspaper allegation that Yorkshire's captain had attacked a man in the crowd. Apologies all round, from Close and from the member involved, failed to prevent his removal from the England captaincy.

Close then returned to Yorkshire to start rebuilding a side that saw the retirement of four England players in 1968-69 and the departure of Illingworth to Leicestershire. By 1970, Yorkshire had climbed back to fourth when, in November, he was stunned to be told "resign or be sacked". He complied and drove away from Headingley in tears.

Later that winter he told two members of the committee: "In the next 10 years, you will realise your mistake". Indeed they did. Close's dismissal could be accepted as the moment Yorkshire lost their status as the superpower of county cricket.

Close, at 40, took himself off to Somerset where, in six years as captain, he inspired a whole generation of players, including the young Ian Botham, who regarded him as the toughest man he has ever met. He also passed 1000 runs on five occasions in those years. He even managed to win a recall for England, to take another hammering, this time from Michael Holding. He remained fit enough to lead a team against the New Zealanders at Scarborough when 55.

The word legend has been so over-used as to become a cliche, but Brian Close will have tales told of him, especially in Yorkshire and the West Country, whenever cricket is talked about. Even as an old man, he undertook an operation for an artificial hip and was playing golf days afterwards.

J.M Kilburn, the distinguished cricket correspondent of the Yorkshire Post , summarised his career thus: "Too much was asked of him too soon. He stretched his fingertips to clouds of glory and submerged in a morass of disappointments. He has enjoyed the highest distinctions and suffered salt in deep wounds." He became a CBE but many felt he should have been at Agincourt and there knighted on the battlefield.

He was proud to serve as Yorkshire's cricket chairman and president in his later years, wounds with the county he treasured healed once more. He died at home in Baildon, Bradford, on September 13 after a long illness. He leaves a widow, Vivien, a son, Lance, and a daughter, Lyn.