A DEEP love of the game of cricket is as natural as breathing to many Craven and Yorkshire folk.

So the county’s cricket fans are sure to love a new book which chronicles the history of the Yorkshire club by profiling all of the 670 men who have represented the county down the decades.

The ‘Who’s Who of The Yorkshire County Cricket Club’ has been authored by Paul Dyson, and naturally enough, features all the players from Craven who made their mark with the county.

Among the earliest was Wilfred Blake, who was known as ‘Fred’ in his playing days. He was born in Embsay, and played for both Yorkshire in 1880 - and Lancashire - and spent several years with Settle.

William Cartman lived in Skipton all his life and was professional for the town’s cricket club, also captaining the town’s rugby union team. He played for Yorkshire in 1891.

Robert Sidgwick was born in Embsay Kirk and kept his place in the Yorkshire side for nine games in 1882 because of his brilliant fielding in the covers. He played for Skipton for a few years but in the late 1880s emigrated to Jamaica.

George Thornton played in only one season for Yorkshire but then had seven years with Middlesex from 1892. In the more lax rules of the time he later played Test cricket for South Africa and also represented Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)!

The only Yorkshire player to be born in Settle was Don Wilson, who was a very important member of the great 1960s teams which won the Championship seven times in ten seasons. A left-arm spin bowler, he played in five Test matches and later had a distinguished coaching career in South Africa, at Lord’s for MCC and finally at Ampleforth College.

The book features everyone who has represented the county by playing for its first eleven in first-class cricket, limited-overs matches or Twenty20 games - as well as the 59 who played for ‘Yorkshire’ before the official formation of the club in 1863.

Players start with Isaac Hodgson in that year and go right up to Kraigg Brathwaite in 2017 - so comprehensive it is!

And whether they played in a - frankly staggering - total of 883 matches, as Wilfred Rhodes did, or whether they wore the county colours just once – and this, perhaps surprisingly, applies to 115 players – each one of them finds their place in the county history.

Author Paul Dyson has compiled the book with Mick Pope, and has provided the statistical background to several cricketing biographies, including those on such well-known names as Geoff Boycott, Brian Close, Colin Cowdrey, Darren Gough, Nasser Hussain and Jim Laker.

Born in South Yorkshire, near Rotherham, Paul says he fell in love with cricket at an early age and spent much of his youth listening to Test Match Special on the radio. He now lives in Knaresborough.

The following are extract, on two players, Settle-born Don Wilson and current captain Garry Ballance, from the book, which is published by Ilkley-based Great Northern Books.

Gary Ballance - Born: 22/11/1989, Harare, Zimbabwe

LHB, LB. Career: 2008- Cap No 172, 2012

Gary Ballance came to Yorkshire via his uncle, former Zimbabwe captain Dave Houghton, encouraging him to take up a scholarship at Harrow, before playing for Derbyshire. On joining Yorkshire he gradually developed into a middle-order batsman proficient in all three formats. In the six games in the Champions League of late-2012 he was easily his county’s highest scorer and in List A cricket averaged over 50. In 2013 he was the County Championship First Division’s leading run-scorer and made his Test debut in Australia in the following winter.

In early-2015 Ballance scored his 1,000th Test run in only his 17th innings – the third fastest for England. However, with a prominently back-foot technique Ballance was later tested and dropped twice but his appointment as Yorkshire captain for 2017 did much to compensate for this. His appetite for scoring runs at county level remained undimmed and he was comfortably Yorkshire’s leading batsman in the Championship in 2017.

Donald Wilson - Born: 07/08/1937, Settle

Died: 21/07/2012, York

LHB, SLA. Career: 1957-74

Cap No 106, 1960. Benefit: 1972

One of the stalwarts of Yorkshire’s team who won seven Championships in the 1959-68 period, Don Wilson was the last of the county’s famous line of left-arm spin bowlers to play for England. Five of his Tests came in India in 1963/64 but only one more seven years later. Tall (6 ft 3 in), Wilson used his height to flight the ball intelligently, always maintained a good length and bowled in an attacking manner. On five occasions he took over 100 wickets in a season, his best of 109 coming in 1968 one year after he had produced his best bowling figures in the Championship with seven for 21 against Warwickshire at Middlesbrough. In 1966 he became only the third Yorkshire bowler to take two hat-tricks in a season.

A hard-hitting tail-end batsman and good fielder, especially at short leg, Wilson played the game with a great deal of enthusiasm. After three years with Lincolnshire and coaching in South Africa he took this infectious approach into being head coach for MCC at Lord’s for 13 years from 1977.