Ken Taylor: Top Yorkshire sportsman who played professional football and cricket dies aged 91

One of Yorkshire’s most prominent sports people of the 1950s and 1960s has died.

Ken Taylor, 91, who played football for Huddersfield Town and cricket for Yorkshire, had been ill for some time.

Taylor, who played in three Tests for England from 1959 to 1964, was renowned as a good player of spin and was one of the best cover fielders of his generation, while his medium pace 'darts' broke many a stubborn partnership for his county captains, Vic Wilson and Brian Close.

The cricket correspondent, Colin Bateman, commented that Taylor was, "a fine, straight-hitting batsman and brilliant fielder.... yet he never made full use of his bounteous abilities and was affected by nerves when the stakes were high".

Taylor was also an important member of the successful Yorkshire team which dominated the County Championship in the 1960s, winning seven titles between 1959 and 1968. He was later a professional artist.

Ken Taylor joined Huddersfield Town after leaving school in 1950, and made 250 first-team appearances for them from 1953 to 1965, before playing for Bradford Park Avenue.