Herbert Sutcliffe's first bat in club cricket, the spliced size 5 handle seemingly from another bat and used for a salvage repair, the back mounted wi

Herbert Sutcliffe's first bat in club cricket, the spliced size 5 handle seemingly from another bat and used for a salvage repair, the back mounted with silvered shield engraved PUDSEY ST. LAWRENCE C.C., PRESENETD TO HERBERT SUTCLIFFE, YORKS. C.C., HIS FIRST CLUB BAT, AN APPRECIATION, DEC. 8TH 1923, in slightly damaged and used condition; sold together with Sutcliffe's manuscript letter of resignation from the Pudsey St. Lawrence C.C., undated, with a section missing, reading DEAR SIRS, HAVING BEEN ADVISED [BY A] FEW GENTLEMEN TO GO WHERE [THERE IS MORE] PRACTICE, I HAVE DECIDED TO [CEASE MY] MEMBERSHIP AS THE ST. [LAWRENCE. I] DISAGREE ALTOGETHER WITH THE [WORKSHOPS] COMPETITION. LAST YEAR I DID NOT AVERAGE ABOVE 25 MINUTES BATTING A WEEK, AND A LAD THAT IS GOING RIGHT IN FOR CRICKET WANTS ABOYT 20 MINUTES EVERY NIGHT. I REMAIN, YOURS SINCERELY, HBT. SUTCLIFFE; and a manuscript letter from Sir Leonard Hutton to Bill Sutcliffe, being a covering letter for previous item, dated March 16/74; the lot also including two Stuart Surridge Herbert Sutcliffe Autograph Patent cricket bats, one of which is a Test Selection, in fair condition (5) Sutcliffe's father, Willie (who died when Herbert was just four years old), and his two uncles, Arthur and Tom, were all stalwarts of the Pudsey St. Lawrence Cricket Club, where young Herbert first learned his game, made his first-team debut aged fourteen, and where his talent was first appreciated by Richard Ingham, the club captain and a Yorkshire C.C.C. committee man. Herbert left the club in 1911, joining the rival Britannia club. In addition to Sutcliffe, Pudsey produced a remarkable succession of outstanding Yorkshire cricketers from its St Lawrence and Brittania cricket clubs including John Tunnicliffe, Major Booth and Sir Leonard Hutton; while the Yorkshire and England captain Ray Illingworth was born in Pudsey in 1932. Provenance: The Herbert Sutcliffe Collection, Sotheby's, 9th July 1999, as lot 40.