A “TYRANNICAL” Keighley cricketing legend comes under the spotlight at the next meeting of Keighley and District Local History Society.

Local people are welcome to join society members for the talk by Mark Rowe about champion player Brian Sellers.

Mr Rowe wrote the book Brian Sellers: A Yorkshire Tyrant which was published this year by the Association of Cricket Statisticians.

Sellers was born in Keighley in 1907 and went on to lead Yorkshire to a unique six county championships in eight seasons before the Second World War.

After retiring as a player he chaired the club until he stood down in the controversy after the sacking of Brian Close as captain in 1970 for Geoffrey Boycott.

Mr Rowe, a Staffordshire journalist, got the idea of the biography when he came across a hand-written interview with Sellers, in a cardboard box in a second-hand book stall in Manchester in 2012.

Besides speaking with Yorkshire cricketers and family members, Rowe conducted research in the Keighley News archives and at Keighley Library.

Mark Rowe said: “Brian Sellers comes across as a loud and sometimes foul-mouthed man who it was best not to cross swords with.

“Sellers was not the best player, as he admitted himself, but he was a necessary ingredient to forge arguably the greatest Yorkshire team ever. It’s no coincidence that when he left the club it plunged into decades of strife.

“The more I learned about him, the more I warmed to him. When he died in 1981 he gave his body to Leeds Medical School rather than have a normal funeral, and so denied people the chance to have a drink.”

Joyce Newton, chairman of Keighley and District Local History Society, said Mark would tell a story of victory, scandal and very unsporting behaviour.

She added: “To think it’s about one of Keighley’s famous sons. It should be thrilling.”

The talk will be on Wednesday, September 13 at 7.30pm, upstairs at Keighley Library. Doors open at 7pm and the talk starts at 7.30pm.

The cost of admission is £1 for Local History Society members and £3 for non-members. All are welcome.

Keighley and District Local History Society was formed in 2004 following the centenary of Keighley Carnegie Library.

It was felt that a dedicated local history society would benefit Keighley and help to preserve and strengthen our vast and varied Heritage in Keighley and the Local Area.

The society concentrates mainly on the areas covered by the pre-1974 Keighley Borough Council.