Paul Routledge

Geoffrey Boycott’s new book would be of more use to English cricketers than a regiment of shrinks

A review of The Corridor of Certainty: My Life beyond Cricket, by Geoffrey Boycott. An egotistical look at the life and times of the greatest living Yorkshireman

‘Conversation Piece’, 1997, by Andrew Festing, Marylebone Cricket Club, featuring: Geoffrey Boycott (Yorkshire), A.P.E. Knott and D.L. Underwood (Kent); middle row, F.J. Titmus (Middlesex), R. Illingworth (Yorkshire and Leicestershire), D.L. Amiss and M.J.K. Smith (Warwickshire), front row, J.H. Edrich (Surrey) and D.B. Close (Yorkshire and Somerset); the first conversation piece is in the background. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 04 October 2014

After 13 barren years Yorkshire is back at the top of county cricket, where Geoffrey Boycott believes it has a place almost of right. We took the County Championship this year, beating Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge by an innings and 152 runs. Ryan Sidebottom finished off the home side to post a splendid match performance of 9-65. He doesn’t get a mention in this book, though his father Arnie does.

In a part of the world where cricket is almost a religion, this is seen as a restoration of the natural order of things. It used to be said that when the county was low in the rankings, men read the Yorkshire Post upside down out of shame.

Boycott played for Yorkshire for 24 years from 1962, and captained the side from 1971 to 1978. ‘I learnt very early on that winning the County Championship was the club’s obsession, to the point that it was almost expected that we would win the title,’ he recalls in his second volume of autobiography.

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