in the 1990s. The business thrived while Sutcliffe was playing cricket and established itself as one of the leading sports goods retailers in the north of England. Sutcliffe ceased to have an active role in 1948 when he handed over the management to his son Billy. Sutcliffe became the northern area representative, and eventually a director, of a paper manufacturer called Thomas Owen which was later amalgamated into Wiggins Teape. This firm also employed Douglas Jardine as company secretary, while Maurice Leyland, Bill Edrich and Len Hutton were other area representatives. Sutcliffe developed severe arthritis in his old age, the disease crippling him to the extent that he needed a wheelchair. He suffered personal tragedy in April 1974 when his wife Emmie, then aged 74, died as result of severe burns following a fire at the family home in Ilkley. He was finally admitted to a Cross Hills nursing home in North Yorkshire where he died in January 1978 at the age of 83. Footnotes • a) Note that there are different versions of Sutcliffe's first-class career totals as a result of his participation in the 1930–31 Indian season. See Variations in first-class cricket statistics for more information. References Bibliography John Arlott, Arlott on Cricket (ed. David Rayvern Allen), Collins, 1984 John Arlott, Portrait of the Master, Penguin, 1982 Barclays World of Cricket, 3rd edition, (ed. E. W. Swanton), Willow Books, 1986. Article on Sutcliffe written by Ian Peebles. Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999 Neville Cardus, Close of Play, Sportsmans Book Club edition, 1957, "Sutcliffe and Yorkshire", pp. 1–10 Bill Frindall, The Wisden Book of Cricket Records, Queen Anne Press, 1986, Alan Gibson, The Cricket Captains of England, Cassell, 1979 Alan Hill, Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro, Simon & Schuster, 1991; Stadia, 2007 (2nd edition) Douglas Jardine, In Quest of the Ashes, Methuen, 2005 Ronald Mason, Jack Hobbs, Sportsman's Book Club, 1961 Pelham Warner, Lords: 1787–1945, Harrap, 1946 Pelham Warner, Cricket Between Two Wars, Sporting Handbooks, 1946 Roy Webber, The County Cricket Championship, Sportsman's Book Club, 1958 Simon Wilde, Number One: The World's Best Batsmen and Bowlers, Gollancz, 1998, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, various editions from 1920 to 1946 Graeme Wright, A Wisden Collection, Wisden, 2004 External links Notes by the Editor – Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1928 (online archive) Herbert Sutcliffe's obituary – Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1979 (online archive) 1894 births 1978 deaths British Army personnel of