Warrior who blazed a trail for so many and battled to the end

Warrior who blazed a trail for so many and battled to the end

- By Mike Walters

ALL around the Basin Reserve, it sounded like the crackle of gunfire, a pistol shot shattering its target.

England's Test match in New Zealand in Wellington had been drifting towards the most soporific of draws when David Lawrence's left kneecap effectively disintegrated in delivery stride.

The traumatic noise of his patella exploding, followed by Lawrence's harrowing screams, shocked everyone who heard it.

Former New Zealand captain Jeremy Coney, commentating for the BBC's Test Match Special at the back of the Museum stand on that day in February 1992, says it was "one of the most terrible noises I've ever heard at a cricket match".

Lawrence was eventually evacuated from the playing area with Ian Botham among the stretcher-bearers and England coach Micky Stewart chasing away cameramen whose lenses were an intrusive distance from a warrior's distress. If it was not the defining image of a fast bowler's career, it changed Lawrence's life - and yet a knee falling to pieces would not even be his worst enemy.

More or less a year to the day since he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, David 'Syd' Lawrence has died, aged 61.

Seldom, if ever, has a player who won just five Test caps left such an imprint on the game and all those who met him.