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Geoffrey Boycott 556 x 400 pixels, 75 Kb
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When asked to contribute a print for a 'Yorkshire Portfolio' it was not hard to decide what aspect of Yorkshire to celebrate for the county has long been one of the heartlands of the Great Game. Nothing epitomises either the spirit of Yorkshire or the art of cricket so well as Geoffrey Boycott, that dour exemplar of defensive batting whose whole career I have followed right up to his last test appearances in India. There was not time in the event to approach Boycott for sittings but it didn't seem inappropriate to use a promotional photograph taken from the back over of Put to the Test borrowed from my son who has the complete works. For those lands deprived of cricket I ought to explain that Boycott is often referred to as 'Sir Geoffrey' as if to point out a glaring oversight in successive honours lists. I ennoble his still further with the title 'Lord Headingley' which should be his inevitable choice when he is elevated to the peerage. Headingley of course is the home ground of Yorkshire C.C. Sir Geoffrey, who also inspired a page of the Heart of a Humument, having especially approved of the presence of his statistics, kindly signed two copies of the etching, one for myself ('with every good wish for your support') and one for Leo. I am optimistically reminded of the apocryphal Sickert lithograph of W.G. Grace on the wall of the games room in HWK Collam's Unhaunted Comma to which Vellinger draws Rima's attention saying, 'Ownership of this print is the touchstone of multiple discernment ... I was once offered a yacht in exchange for my copy, which as you see is signed both by the artist and the Doctor himself'. The Portrait Works (1989), p. 49.
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