Brian Close was one of my first sporting heroes when as a kid I saw him at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, in the days when Yorkshire played cricket there. When I met him to interview him for the BBC radio sporting series Yes Yes Yes, I found he was not only a wonderful sportsman, but also a great bloke. Arriving at his Yorkshire home, I had anticipated meeting an elder statesman of cricket. Instead I found Closey, then aged around 70, swinging around on his roof retiling the whole thing single-handed. Then, fag in hand and a smile on his lips, he gave me and the listeners his priceless memories of the 1963 Test when, without a helmet, he gave the fearsome West Indies pace duo Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith the charge. “You don’t need a helmet, just move your head,” he laughed. “And if they hit you, so what. It were only a bruise.” One of a kind – and a privilege to have met him.
