A BOOK has been published about one of Keighley's most famous sporting sons.

The biography tells the story of former Yorkshire county cricket captain Brian Sellers, who was born in Keighley and lived in the district all his life.

He played for the town's first XI, following in his father's footsteps.

Mr Sellers then went on to represent Yorkshire, playing in over 300 first-class matches between 1932 and 1948 and captaining the side.

His biography has been compiled by Staffordshire-based journalist and cricket fanatic, Mark Rowe.

"I was rummaging through an old box at a secondhand book stall in Manchester a few years ago when I came across some hand-written notes about Brian and that was the inspiration," he said.

"I've written a book previously about the 1945 season, so was aware of him, but I was fascinated by this discovery.

"He learned his cricket at the Lawkholme club and scored more than 10,000 runs for them – and was captain for a couple of seasons – before going on to play for Yorkshire."

Mr Rowe carried out some of his research at Keighley Library, where he will give a talk about Mr Sellers on September 13, at 7.30pm.

"He sounded like a difficult man to get on with – big and intimidating – yet he only wanted the best for his club and the game of cricket," said Mr Rowe.

"Some say that with such a great team as Yorkshire's in the 1930s – names such as Herbert Sutcliffe, Leonard Hutton, Hedley Verity and Bill Bowes – the captain didn't matter much.

"I found this was not true. Sellers – as he admitted from the start – was not worth a place in the team on merit, but did drive everyone on to be champions."

Mr Sellers died in 1981, aged 73.

Brian Sellers: Yorkshire Tyrant is published by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and retails at £15 from acscricket.com.