By the time he retired from county cricket at the end of the 1977 season, Close had achieved folk hero status in Somerset. He went on to play for Todmorden in the Lancashire League. Close also had a stint as an England selector between 1979 and 1981 and in 1984 he was elected to the Yorkshire committee. He became chairman of the cricket sub-committee, which led him into more controversy and conflict with the captain, Geoffrey Boycott. He was President of Yorkshire in 2008/9.