An accumulator of runs rather than a stroke maker, he very occasionally allowed himself to bat more freely, and when he did he revealed himself as a particularly fine cutter.

The Yorkshire cricket journalist John Bapty said of Mitchell's fielding: "His skill became such, and his fame mounted so that there were times when it was said he had missed a catch that never would have been accounted a chance had he not made it one.

"[2] Mitchell's Test cricket career might have consisted of just three matches on the 1933–34 tour of India, when he performed without distinction in what was, in effect, an England second eleven.

But an injury to Maurice Leyland just before the Headingley Test against South Africa in 1935 led to Mitchell being summoned, literally, from his back garden.

[1] Mitchell was appointed county coach to Yorkshire after World War II, and remained in the job until 1970.