Harry Gration’s Yorkshire Sporting Heroes (Dalesman, £9.99) (From The Northern Echo)

Harry Gration’s Yorkshire Sporting Heroes (Dalesman, £9.99)

11:33am Monday 12th October 2009 in

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'MR Yorkshire Sport’ since he became a Look North (Leeds) presenter in the mid-Eighties, Harry Gration here presents short, well-illustrated personal profiles of his top 30 Yorkshire sporting heroes.

Nudged by Geoff Boycott, John Charles heads the list, while Adrian Moorhouse and Anita Lonsbrough bring up the scarcely-less distinguished rear. Harry adds a look at famous Yorkshire sporting venues and offbeat traditions, the latter of which include Esk Valley quoits and the Scorton Arrow. His style is light and engaging.

But a surprising absentee from his elite is Brian Clough, not least because “Cloughie’ forces himself into Harry’s profiles of Leeds players Norman Hunter and Eddie Gray and provides Harry with two of a short selection of vivid quotes about Yorkshire sportsmen. Perish the thought that Harry, whose sporting centre of gravity has always been the West Riding, doesn’t consider Middlesbrough-born Clough a Yorkshireman.