Duncan given right start

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 11

Duncan given right start

NZPA-AAP London A man sent his wife from Bermuda to give birth in Yorkshire because he wanted a son who could play cricket for the county, the “Daily Mail” reports. Yorkshire accepts only players who were born there so when Sandra Taylor, aged 31, became pregnant, her husband, Leslie, flew her 5600 km from Bermuda with strict instructions to have the baby in Yorkshire, it said.

The plan nearly failed when Mrs Taylor began having labour pains while visiting her sister in the rival county of Lancashire. Undaunted, she called a taxi and, with her mother, Millie, clutching her hand, she made the 50km dash to Leeds Maternity Hospital, barely a good six-hit from Yorkshire’s headquarters.

One hour later Duncan arrived, a true Yorkshireman and, in his father’s words, “a future Geoff Boycott.”

Mrs Taylor said: “The taxi took me along the motorway at about 90 miles an hour. There were times I thought I would never get into Yorkshire in time and everything would have been ruined. But I was determined not to let Duncan arrive until we were over the border.

“Before we got married, I knew that Les was desperate to have a boy born in Yorkshire. At the time I thought we would only have to travel from Birmingham, where we were living. “I had no idea it would be in Bermuda.”

Mr Taylor, an accountant who emigrated to Bermuda five years ago, admitted

that he had taken a gamble on the baby’s sex.

When his wife was expecting her first child 15 months ago he had sent her on the same journey, but Mrs Taylor had a girl, Victoria, the “Mail” said. The two return air trips had cost a total of £l4OO, but Mr Taylor was ecstatic. “Although I was brought up in Birmingham, I followed the great Yorkshire team in the 1960 s and am determined to have a son playing for them. I can’t wait until Duncan is old enough the don his pads and pick up a bat.” Mrs Taylor was not quite as determined as her husband about her son’s future, the “Mail” said. “I don’t think much of cricket, personally,” she said. “Duncan could be a ballerina for all I care.”