Phil Sharpe

By Gary Watton
May 23 2014

It is a case of glass half full, glass half empty after the Yorkshire Vikings shared the points with Warwickshire Bears after inclement weather prevented any play in their planned Twenty20 skirmish at Edgbaston. On the positive side the Tykes have avoided a second successive defeat. On the other hand, the northern county were denied the opportunity to redeem themselves after their opening defeat.

Meanwhile, as the first eleven turns its attention to the small matter of a Roses encounter with the next door neighbour, the county is in mourning after the recent passing of one of our 'sixties stalwarts, Phil Sharpe. Phil typically accumulated an innings of 77 years before he was finally dismissed. He was one of the best batsmen in England and can consider himself to have been unfortunate not to have been selected more often for the national team. Aside from being a prolific runs-scorer in a successful Yorkshire team, Sharpe lived up to his name by earning a reputation as being one of the sharpest slip catchers in world cricket. The former Yorkshire captain may be gone but he certainly won't be forgotten.