In 1995 his Bill to put the UK on Central European Time was passed in the Lords

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In 1995 his Bill to put the UK on Central European Time was passed in the Lords, but it never reached the Commons.A former gamekeeper successfully took Mountgarret to court in 1999 for unfair dismissal, describing his "unpredictable, irrational and intolerable rages". He startled the 1985 annual general meeting, and won a standing ovation from members, by banging a bat on the table and declaring: "I will always put the club first. Will you?"If necessary, he added to cheers, he was prepared to "knock a few heads together". Members and public rallied to an outspoken man who had no ties or loyalties to the two opposing groups within the club, the pro-Boycott Yorkshire Members 1984 and the anti-Boycott Cricket Devotees. He warned: What I deprecate is that certain members have resorted to actions that undermine the running of the club. It was rumoured that Reg Kirk, then chairman, spent his evenings thumbing through Debrett's. The choice fell upon Lord Mountgarret, who was known to be a keen cricketer, an Eton Rambler and member of MCC, whose management of his estate near Ripon would allow him time to take an interest in club affairs.What he was not, as a member of the Butler family, who had won the title pacifying Ulster in medieval times, was an absentee landlord.

As Boycott's playing career merged into a new future in the media his influence, and that of his many supporters, was less noticeable.In more peaceful times Mountgarret, like Churchill, was less successful, but, when he was replaced as President by Sir Leonard Hutton in 1990, he could claim to have done Yorkshire a considerable service, saving them from such a schism that one national newspaper had decided could only be resolved by the creation of two county cricket clubs, Boycottshire and Othershire.Born in 1936, Richard Henry Piers Butler was educated at Eton, became a Guards officer and in 1966 succeeded his father as the 17th Viscount Mountgarret. Eventually it might be necessary to suspend members from the committee.He held talks with both groups, encouraged the drawing-up of a new constitution that would remove the controversial "dual role" of Boycott (he was both a member of committee and a contracted player) which, when instituted, left the club in charge of a management committee chaired by the President. It was endorsed by an overwhelming 92 per cent of those in the hall at the 1986 AGM. In 1984, after the former England captain Norman Yardley had resigned from the office, disheartened by the decade-long controversy over Geoffrey Boycott's role in the club, the pro-Boycott general committee cast around for a Yorkshireman of stature to give the club a high-profile figurehead and, they hoped, their government some needed popularity.Among names publicised were Lord Hanson, the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Sir James Hill and Michael Parkinson. Viscount Mountgarret was notorious for discharging a shotgun at a hot-air balloon as it flew over his shoot but is better remembered in his county for his presidency of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.His tenure was a surprising success.

Richard Henry Piers Butler, landowner and cricket administrator: born 8 November 1936; succeeded 1966 as 17th Viscount Mountgarret; President, Yorkshire County Cricket Club 1984-90; married 1960 Gillian Buckley (two sons, one daughter; marriage dissolved 1970), 1970 Jennifer Fattorini (n?Wills; marriage dissolved 1983), 1983 Ruth Waddington (n?Porter); died Harrogate, North Yorkshire 7 February 2004. The actor also founded the Noble Willingham Foundation, which donated most of its profits to the all-black Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas.Willingham is still to be seen as a deputy sheriff in the feature film Blind Horizon (2004), a thriller set in a small desert town in New Mexico and starring Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard.Anthony Hayward. Bogdanovich promised Willingham another job if he travelled to Los Angeles and, as a result, he appeared in Paper Moon (1973).This launched him on a new career and he acted in 40 feature films, including Chinatown (1974), The Howling (1981) and Ace Ventura: pet detective (1994). He was the brigadier-general sympathetic to Robin Williams's manic forces disc-jockey in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and Clay Stone in the comedies City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: the legend of Curly's gold (1994). He also took dozens of one-off character roles on television.He left Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-99) to stand as the Republican candidate for the First Congressional District of Texas in the 2000 elections for the US House of Representatives but was defeated by the sitting Democratic Party candidate.