New Books – An Overview for July 2019

You have to be numerate to take an interest in cricket, thus I have been able to calculate that this is the twenty first occasion on which I have embarked on this article. My mother would say therefore that it has come of age, and I hope that perhaps it has.

To mark this significant anniversary I will begin with a slight departure from the norm although, as a keen collector of benefit material I probably should have done it years ago. There are eight long serving county cricketers who have been awarded benefits this year, and they are Chris Rushworth Durham), Graham Wagg (Glamorgan), Ian Cockbain (Gloucestershire), Joe Denly (Kent), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jade Dernbach (Surrey) and Jack Shantry (Worcestershire).

Over the years many benefit committees have produced brochures, and those have become increasingly sophisticated over the years. They are not as frequent as they once were, partly because players are more mobile and not so many put in the long service at one county needed to earn benefits, and partly no doubt because the costs of producing these glossy magazines has become prohibitive. Nonetheless many are an important biographical record of their subject and for that reason alone are well worth collecting.

Of this year’s beneficiaries I can say with certainty that the committees of Messrs Denly, Broad and Dernbach have confirmed they are producing brochures, and those of Cockbain and Shantry that they are not. No response has been received to enquiries made of Rushworth and Wagg, which suggests they are not although Wagg’s twitter feed indicates advertising was at one stage being sought. The reply I received from Malan’s committee, whilst being very prompt, did not actually answer the question although I have since been told by a friend and Middlesex supporter that something is to be published very soon.

As to Shantry although there is no brochure there is something that is, probably, even better being a small book published with the title Shantry’s Match – Shantry, whose career was ended by injury two years ago, was a journeyman all-rounder for Worcester and played 92 First Class matches over nine summers. He made just two centuries, and only twice managed a ten wicket match haul. One of each in the same game against Surrey in 2014 led an improbable victory charge and the book consists of Paul Edwards’ account of that remarkable game, and a biographical essay by George Dobell.

Monty Panesar left the game at around the same time as Shantry, although for very different reasons. Another distinction to be drawn is that Monty is not yet ready to draw a line under his First Class career and his very recent autobiography, The Full Monty, is a fascinating read.

Robin Smith, published a mid career autobiography back in 1993 under the title Quest For Number One. A few years later he retired and, since then, life has not treated him as well as it might have. His just published autobiography, The Judge, explores what has happened to one of the bravest batsman of his time since he gave up the game.

Just a few years older than Smith is the former Somerset and England all-rounder Vic Marks. Now a respected writer and broadcaster Marks autobiography is entitled Original Spin: Misadventures in Cricket, and has just been released by Allen and Unwin.

Something I would love to be able to report is that Stephen Chalke has changed his mind about retiring Fairfield Books, particularly after the imprint’s three wonderful books so far this year. I regret I cannot do so, but can at least confirm that Stephen has agreed to help one more book into print, the memoirs of former Surrey, Gloucestershire and Sussex batsman Roger Knight. I wonder if the book will reveal how often Knight has been accused of being Nick Knight’s father, a misapprehension I laboured under for years, reinforced by both having an initial V, and the pair bearing what I still maintain is a more than superficial resemblance to each other.

Another of our favourite publishers are Pitch, and they have some interesting new titles in the pipeline. I mentioned Christopher Sandford’s forthcoming biography of John Murray at the beginning of the year, but before that a new book by Jonathan Rice is due, Stories Of Cricket’s Finest Painting. The painting concerned is of play at Canterbury in 1906 in a County Championship fixture between Kent and Lancashire, won by Kent, the eventual champions, by the crushing margin of an innings and 195 runs – earlier in the summer, in the reverse fixture, it had been the turn of the Red Rose to win easily, by ten wickets.

As for the stories the book consists of those will be of how the famous painting came to be commissioned, how the match unfolded and the stories of the lives of the players involved. A few of them, like Archie MacLaren and Colin Blythe, have had their lives written before but certainly the stories of Kent’s match winners, Kenneth Hutchings with the bat and paceman Arthur Fielder with the ball, will be interesting.

In a couple of weeks’ time Pitch publish the autobiography of Franklyn Stephenson, the fine West Indian all-rounder who, thanks to joining the rebel tours to South Africa in the 1980s, never enjoyed the Test career he was patently good enough for. Stephenson will also feature heavily in a book Pitch are publishing in 2020, The Unforgiven, the story of all those rebel tourists, the lives of a number of whom spiralled rapidly downwards after the tours.

There are two books due out on the subject of Alistair Cook. One is the obligatory former England captain end of career autobiography, simply titled Memoir and published by Michael Joseph. Does Cook have a ghost? I suspect he must have, although the identity of the writer concerned is not clear from anything I have seen although, nobody’s fool, I suppose the possibility that Cook has done the writing duties himself cannot be ruled out. Also due is The Alistair Cook Story from Ollie Brett, a name that I must confess to, at the moment at least, not knowing very much about.

Recent weeks saw the release of the fourth and, for the time being last, instalment of Stephen Hill’s magnum opus on Somerset players. Somerset Cricketers 1971-2000 is a wonderful book. Further on the Somerset theme Hill’s collaborator on volumes two and three of his series has recently produced a full biography of one of the more interesting men from the earliest days of county cricket in Somerset, even if he was not one of their better players. Too Fond of Winning concerns the life of Henry Stanley.

There has been a new book on Garry Sobers this year; Sir Garfield Sober: The Baylands’ Favourite Son by Professor Keith Sanford has been published by JW McKenzie. We have also been treated to a book published in Trinidad, albeit one about an Indian Test player. Love Without Boundaries concerns the great leg spinner Subash ‘Fergie’ Gupte, and is written by his daughter.

In Australia Max Bonnell has been busy with two recent publications already this year and another one just about to appear. Those already released are Ebley Street Boys, a double biography of Norman Calloway and Frank O’Keeffe, followed by A Boyhood Hero on the subject of Johnny Taylor. About to be released from Bonnell is another volume in Ken Piesse’s ‘Nostalgia’ series. The title of the book is Dainty, thus it is a biography of Bert Ironmonger.

There have been two new books on the subject of Donald Bradman this year, which makes me wonder when the last time a year passed without one was. Of the two one is an inexpensive self-published paperback written by Peter Kettle. I reviewed Rescuing Don Bradman from Splendid Isolation here, The second, and a nicely produced limited edition of fifty, is by James Merchant. As its title suggests The Business of Bradman concerns the various ways in which ‘The Don’ made a living outside the game.

Also from the pen of Peter Kettle comes a cricket themed play, A Plea For Qualitative Justice, which concerns the thorny old question of how best to rank cricketers and is not therefore totally dissimilar in subject matter to his Bradman book, but it is certainly very different in style and approach.

Elsewhere in Australia Bernard Whimpress is publishing a small booklet in a limited edition of fifty copies, Turnarounds. As the title suggest the booklet concerns matches between New South Wales and South Australia in 2000-01 and Victoria and New South Wales matches in 1926-27 in which there were remarkable ‘turnarounds’. A more substantial work is also due soon from Whimpress who has completed a biography of the great Australian all-rounder of Victorian times, George Giffen. Another great Australian all-rounder, Frank Tarrant, who would undoubtedly have enjoyed a long Test career had he not chosen to play as a professional for Middlesex, is the subject of a biography written by Mike Coward and to be published by our friends at the Cricket Publishing Company.

Ken Piesse and Mark Browning have written Bob’s Boys, the story of how Victoria won the Sheffield Shield in 1969/70. Again this one will appear in the ‘Nostalgia’ series and will be signed by a number of those who were involved.

Finally from Australia October will see a new book from, amongst other projects, the biographer of Jack Fingleton and ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith. Greg Growden has written Cricketers at War: Cricket Heroes Who also Fought for Australia in Battle. The subject matter is clear from the title, but the scope extends beyond the two World Wars to Vietnam and beyond.

From India we have seen a second edition of Vijay Lokapally’s 2016 biography of Virat Kohli, Driven, and a new book about Kohli which was reviewed by Mohit here. Also published in India is a biography of Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya, by  Chandresh Narayanan.  A self-published biography  of Molinder ‘Jimmy’ Amaranth has also appeared from Arup Saika. The title is Jimmy: The Phoenix of ’83. Also due in India is a biography of West Indies batsman Alvin Kallicharran. Less certain, but rumoured, are biographies of Abbas Ali Baig, Nari Contractor and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.

Once again there are no tour books, well not in the old fashioned way. We do however have Standard Bearers, a collection of Gideon Haigh’s writing on Australia’s 2018/19 international cricket  schedule.

There have been a couple of retrospective tour accounts however. With We Are The Invincibles Indian writer Anindya Dutta revisited the famous tour of 1948, and did a thoroughly good job of it. The second is more interesting, in the sense that it deals with two trips that have not previously been the subject of books. The West Indian trip to England of 1933 is one,and the Englishmen’s return trip of 1934/35 the other. The book is written by Richard Bentley, and its title is A War To The Knife.

Another tour book which looks to be a worthwhile investment is Prashant Kidambe’s Cricket Country, an account of a long forgotten visit to English shores in 1911 by a team from India, some twenty years before the Indians’ inaugural Test was played.

There are also two books due to appear in respect of the second tied Test, played out in Madras between India and Australia in 1986. One is Border’s Battlers by Michael Sexton and the other is from Ronald Cardwell and the Cricket Publishing Company. That one is titled The Tied Test in Madras and in addition to standard edition there is, for those of us who like that sort of thing, a multi signed and specially bound limited edition.

In the ‘miscellaneous’ category we have had a very nice collector’s item, Jules Akel’s delightful Cricket Tickets, and on the subject of limited editions we have had a book from David Battersby, The Early Years of Gilbert Laird Jessop. Battersby has also produced one of his booklets, The Auckland Single Wicket Competition 1968-1973, and I would like to think another one must be due fairly soon.and from our friends at Max Books the first in a series of booklets about interesting characters who have played for Lancashire, Geoff Clayton. 

And finally, on this very day, a new limited edition booklet, Harry’s Mission, is being published by Red Rose Books. Quite how this has managed to jump Samuel Lunt and Ralph Whitehead in the queue is something I do not know, and I fear that the monograph I crave on the subject of the publisher’s father is receding far into the distance. But I am impressed by Martin Tebay’s enthusiasm for this one. The subject matter is certainly unexpected. The Harry in question was the manager of the Boston Red Stockings baseball team and in 1874 he brought his charges to England to promote the American game, with part of the programme involving cricketing contests. A review will follow soon.

Twice a year CW looks forward to those cricket books due in the months ahead. If any publisher or author reading this has a book we have missed please let us know and if you would like CW to review your books and/or announce your future plans at the beginning of January 2020 then please contact us at info@cricketweb.net, which email address can also be used by any prospective purchaser seeking further information. 

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/2IXUb3I

Northamptonshire’s Forgotten Fast Bowler

Edward Winchester Clark was born near Peterborough in August of 1902. By the age of 18 he had moved to Yorkshire to take up an engineering apprenticeship. He started to play Bradford League cricket for Undercliffe and made such an impression with his left arm fast bowling that the former Warwickshire player Frank Field recommended him to Northamptonshire. He joined the county in 1922. In those days, and indeed throughout Clark’s tenure with them, Northants were lamentably weak, only once, in 1925, rising as high as eleventh in the table. Generally they were in the bottom two.

Today Clark is still the county’s leading wicket taker, with a career haul of 1,208 wickets at the decent average of 21.49. How many more wickets he might have taken in a stronger side is a matter for speculation. Certainly however he suffered from his batting colleagues not scoring sufficient for him ever to have much to bowl at, and he also suffered enormously from dropped catches. In Clark’s time Northants had one top class close catcher, Fred Bakewell, who invariably fielded at short leg. They had no reliable slip fieldsmen at all, and many slip catches went down from Clark’s bowling.

As a bowler Clark was that rarest of beasts, a genuinely fast left armer. He was much quicker than his contemporary Bill Voce and was said to be comparable in speed to Harold Larwood. Like Larwood he also had a much vaunted action, classically side on with a ramrod straight arm that just brushed his ear as his arm came over. A photograph of that delivery stride was used for some years to advertise Worthington’s beer. In the days before players had agents or, for the most part, any business acumen Clark’s reward for the use of his image was an annual crate or two of the company’s product.

Returning to 1922 Clark made an impressive bow, taking 20 wickets at 17.10. He was not quite so impressive in 1923, and missed almost all of the 1924 summer after injuring his hand in a motorcycle accident, but in 1925 he established himself and was immediately talked about as an England prospect. Particularly impressed was the Australian opening batsman Warren Bardsley who, despite taking a century from him in 1926, declared a few years later that England should have taken him to Australia in 1928/29.

It may have been the fiery red head’s temper that held him back internationally. Certainly the combination of that and playing for such an unfashionable county did not help. In addition Clark had no interest in batting. He had enough of an eye for a ball that his aggression made sure he scored more runs than he took wickets, but he was not a man to be relied on with the bat, and never did score more than 30 although, just occasionally he would show, in the course of an obdurate last wicket partnership when the opposition had got his tail up, what he might have achieved had he been captained more forcefully. Clark was no great shakes in the field either, regarding that part of his duties as a chore between overs.

The first cap finally came against South Africa in 1929. In what was easily his best season with the ball (altogether he took 149 wickets at 19.09) Clark was called up for the final Test of a series that was won 2-0 by England by virtue of having won the third and fourth Tests. The visitors put on a much better demonstration at The Oval scoring 492-8 in their only innings. Clark was England’s most impressive bowler with figures of 3-79 in 36 overs. He removed opener Bob Catterall in his first over, but had to wait a while after that to claim the scalps of Herby Taylor and Denis Morkel. The Cricketer described his bowling as having pace and devil, and commented that he worked very hard, but did criticise him for overuse of leg theory.

Northamptonshire captain Vallance Jupp, a fine all-round cricketer who was good enough to do the double on nine occasions, more than anyone other than Wilfred Rhodes, would frequently clash with Clark and in 1930, with Australia in England, there was one dispute too many and Clark was sacked. The county were playing a Championship match at Worcester when Clark received an offer of £20, a very substantial sum at the time, to play a match for Rochdale in the Central Lancashire League on the following Saturday. Contracted to Northamptonshire Clark needed their permission to play and, Jupp contacting the committee on Clark’s behalf, agreement was reached, the county not having a fixture that weekend anyway.

The details of what happened next are not clear but Jupp, having taken the trouble to sort out the opportunity for his wayward fast bowler to play in the match was then angered by Clark’s ‘insubordination’ during the Worcestershire match and his report of that, coupled with what the committee described as Clark’s general attitude of late, caused them to withdraw the consent. Clark chose to appear for Rochdale anyway and the committee sacked him as a result. He did not play for Northants again that season.

For 1931 Clark signed a contract with Todmorden in the Lancashire League worth £450 to him. It is often the case that those with limited pretensions to batsmanship in the First Class arena bat with a degree of competence in the leagues, but not Clark, who scored fewer runs (23) than matches in which he competed (24). With the ball however he took 71 wickets at 7.23. Of the other professionals on show only the legendary Sydney Barnes, who was by then 58 years of age, bettered Clark. Barnes haul was a remarkable 115 wickets at 6.30.

Clark remained with Todmorden in 1932 when his bowling brought him 93 wickets at 8.66. Again Barnes was the leading professional, and Clark’s record was also bettered by another Lancashire League great, Learie Constantine, but he still had the third best record amongst the League’s professionals. He also did rather better with the bat in that second season, albeit his tally of runs was still less than his wicket haul. Nonetheless it seems Clark must have missed the First Class game as there was a rapprochement with Northants as he turned out for them when his commitments to Todmorden permitted. In nine appearances he took 38 wickets at 21.00 and, more importantly for the county, signed back on for them on a full time basis for 1933.

The summer of 1933 was one of the more interesting English seasons, Douglas Jardine’s side having just returned from Australia with the Ashes, mired in controversy over Jardine’s ‘Bodyline’ tactics. No stranger himself to bowling leg theory it was perhaps unsurprising that the pair came together over the course of the summer. For Clark there was a memorable start to the season as he took 5-32 and 5-29 for Northants in an innings victory over that summer’s tourists. Making the point that the West Indians must have been disheartened to suffer such a comprehensive defeat at the hands of one of the weaker counties The Cricketer commented that they could at least console themselves with the fact that they found Clark at the very top of his form, and it is extremely doubtful if any side would have made many runs against him.

Selected for the first Test of the series Clark missed out on winning a second cap because of injury and lost the opportunity, in a comprehensive England victory, to pick up some more cheap West Indian wickets. He was fit again for the second Test at Old Trafford but, buoyed by the presence of the talismanic Constantine, the West Indies were much stiffer opposition this time. This was the famous occasion when, to the disgust of Walter Hammond and one or two other Englishmen, Constantine and Manny Martindale treated them to a display of hostile leg theory bowling. Two Englishmen enjoyed themselves though, skipper Jardine who demonstrated whilst recording his only Test century that ‘Bodyline’ bowling could be mastered, and Clark who had licence to retaliate. He took six wickets in the match and was generally reckoned to be England’s best bowler, a slower ball that bowled Oscar Da Costa in the first innings attracting particular praise.

For the third and final Test of the series Constantine was back at Nelson, and England won again by an innings. This time the most successful bowler was ‘Father’ Marriott who, with his wrist spin, took 11-96 in his only Test. In the opinion of John Armitage, writing in The Cricketer, he had Clark to thank; From the start Clark bowled so fiercely and so well that the batsmen shuddered, and when Marriott came on they turned to him with relief and were hopelessly deceived. In the visitors’ first innings Clark took 3-16 and in the second, opener Clifford Roach getting on top of him for a time, 2-54.

In the winter of 1933/34 Clark went on the only overseas tour with England of his career, to India. England were led once more, but for the last time, by Jardine. Like Larwood before him Clark seems to have had considerable respect for Jardine and, unlike his county captains at Northants, the ‘Iron Duke’ seems to have had no problems with Clark, who headed the tour averages with 79 wickets at 12.51. At least in part Clark was doubtless won over by the loyalty that Jardine showed to those who played under him and followed his instructions. In the second Test of the three match series, after Clark repeatedly struck the Indian wicketkeeper Dilawar Hussain about the hands whilst bowling leg theory the former Middlesex player Frank Tarrant, who was umpiring, told Jardine that if Clark did not desist from bumping the ball down at the Indian batsmen he would order him to be removed from the attack. It is said that Jardine’s response was that if such a move were attempted he would stop Tarrant umpiring, and indeed Tarrant was stood down from the role in the final Test.

There was more trouble for Clark in that final Test when, in India’s first innings, he struck the Indian opener Naoomal Jaoomal on the head causing him to retire hurt and miss the second innings. The home supporters are said to have barracked Clark over the incident, although as the ball went from Jaoomal’s bat to his head as The Cricketer was at pains to point out, Clark was not at fault. Despite that there was still a potential flash point after the injury to Jaoomal when there was some barracking from the crowd and a stone was thrown at Clark, which landed close to where he was fielding at square leg. Clark picked up the stone and walked slowly and deliberately back towards from whence it came. Given the combustious Clark temperament there must have been some who feared an incident of the type that half a century later caused namesake Sylvester Clarke problems in Pakistan. Clark however showed he was not entirely lacking in diplomatic skills and proceeded to carefully place the stone back behind the rope before smiling at the onlookers and walking back to his mark. A potentially problematic situation had been diffused.

One man who resented his treatment in India was Tarrant, and he was deeply critical of Jardine and Clark in the Australian press, making it clear that in his view Clark was bowling ‘Bodyline’, under orders from Jardine, and with the intention of injuring the Indian batsmen. Tarrant also accused Clark of deliberately digging a hole in the wicket during one of his occasional short stays at the batting crease in a match in Ceylon. Tarrant added that the hole was just on a good length for Clark, and that his actions were so blatant that the MCC captain for the day, Brian Valentine of Kent, felt obliged to apologise to the opposition. Tarrant went on to say he had reported the matter to Lord’s. If he did it seems reasonable to assume that the powers that be treated the allegations with a large pinch of salt as it seems improbable that Clark would have been picked against Australia in 1934 had it been thought they were true.

Jardine’s men spent the best part of six months travelling to and from the sub-continent and playing a total of 34 matches in India and Ceylon. On their return a number of them seemed jaded and the two pace bowlers, Clark and Stan Nichols of Essex particularly so. Clark had a number of niggling injuries and his summer’s work brought him just 50 wickets at 29.64. Nichols did not miss so many games, but his tally of wickets in 1934 was half what it had been the previous summer, and indeed half what it would be in the next. Despite Clark’s problems he did however demonstrate enough form to be selected twice for the England side against Bill Woodfull’s Australians.

That Clark was in the selectors’ minds was demonstrated by his selection for England to play for the Rest in a Test trial at Lord’s in early June. He bowled nine good overs and took two wickets before limping out of the attack with a side strain. The injury ruled him out of the first two Tests although he was back for the third at Old Trafford and made the final eleven.  The match was drawn with England’s second innings not having progressed very far. Having won the toss and chosen to bat England piled up 627-9 to which Australia replied with 491. Clark took 1-100, his victim being opener Bill Brown. He didn’t bowl badly, and amongst a number of errors in the field Bill Woodfull and Stan McCabe were dropped from his bowling, but it wasn’t enough for him to keep his place and he was left out for the fourth Test.

At Headingley Don Bradman and Bill Woodfull put on 388 for the fourth wicket as Australia took a first innings lead of 384. England saved the game easily enough but with the final Test, in light of the 1-1 scoreline, to be played to a finish Clark, the attacking option, found himself back for what proved to be his eighth and last Test. It is worth remembering at this point that the series was played in the aftermath of ‘Bodyline’ and the Australians were extremely sensitive to the possibility of the repetition of the tactics that had cost them the last series.

England’s skipper, Jardine having retired from the game at the end of the tour of India, was Bob Wyatt. Of the bowlers who had tormented Australia in 32/33 Harold Larwood was injured and Bill Voce not selected. Voce continued to bowl leg theory and did so with great success at Trent Bridge for Nottinghamshire against the Australians just a week before the final Test, taking 8-66 in the first innings before appearing for just two overs in the second because, so it was said, of ‘sore shins’. The Notts skipper, unimpressed at the ‘sore shins’ cover story, was Arthur Carr.

As a left arm bowler Clark had always been happy to bowl leg theory and he was not averse to bouncing batsmen either so there were, given his volatile temperament, concerns about him appearing against the Australians. In the event he did bowl some leg theory, although not in a manner that could be called ‘Bodyline’. The Australians won the final encounter building up an impregnable 701 in their first innings, Bradman and Ponsford adding 451 this time.

Neville Cardus, no fan of ‘Bodyline, complained that there is no reason in fair sport why Clark’s field against Australia on a docile wicket should ever vary from the field he is entitled to when he plays, say, against Lancashire at Northampton, where the pitch is usually lively. A left handed swing bowler loses half his deadliness if he is deprived of his proper field. The case against fast leg theory depends on the high kicking ball persistently exploited. If a fast bowler is not bumping over after over by malice prepense, he is free to set his field in whatever way he is prompted by invention, speculation or even desperation. Bumping balls today were extremely few.

The match itself turned into a huge Australian victory. England conceded a first innings lead of 380 whereupon, given the timeless nature of the contest, Woodfull chose not to enforce the follow on and Australia added 327 more. The pressure was clearly off them but, with 5-98, Clark ended his Test career with his only five wicket haul. He missed out on dismissing Bradman, but his five victims were all front line batsmen. Interestingly in the second innings Clark did utilise his normal field with six men on the leg side.

The by then retired Carr, in an autobiography published the following year, and doubtless still vexed by  the events at Trent Bridge the previous summer wrote; Ponsford’s horror of the new ball from fast bowlers is well known, and it was pathetic to see him time after time turn his rump to the bowling of Clark. Carr’s view was clearly to the effect that the Australians were deliberately setting out to make it appear as if Clark was bowling ‘Bodyline’.

That Clark wasn’t bowling ‘Bodyline’ is amply demonstrated by the approval of Cardus to his change of tactics. The change of heart can only have been the length Clark adopted, but Jardine still felt the need to complain, writing of the same passage of play in his book on the 1934 series; One asks why it should have been right for Clark to do this and wrong for Voce, who, though rather more accurate, is distinctly slower than Clark.

Although Clark played his final Test in 1934 he was back to his best in 1935 and took his 79 wickets at 18.50 each. The South Africans were touring England that summer and Clark was called into the England squads for the second and third Tests. The second Test was the famous ‘leatherjacket’ match at Lord’s. The pitch had been attacked by a plague of crane fly larvae and took spin from the off. England decided to play three spinners and just one pace bowler, Stan Nichols of Essex, so Clark missed out. The man who played the decisive hand however was the visitors’ leg spinner Xen Balaskas. It was the only Test of the series that was not drawn.

For the second match at Headingley Bill Bowes was selected on his home ground. Whether he would have got the nod had Clark been fit is debatable. Unfortunately however the selectors had their decision made for them when a cracked rib cost Clark his chance. What is known is that he had sustained the injury when county teammate Fred Bakewell pushed him over a pile of kit bags. What has proved more elusive is whether it was an act of horseplay, or the two strong characters had had a disagreement.

In 1936 Clark was still only 34 and was granted a benefit and, although he wasn’t called upon by the selectors for the Test series against India he still bowled well, taking his wickets at a cost of less than twenty runs apiece. The following year was a disappointment however and his average soared to over 27. Wisden commented that he was troubled by injury from June before dropping out of the side altogether in August. At least one source has it that in fact he was sacked after the committee had received complaints (unspecified in nature) from the club captain Geoffrey Cuthbertson. Whilst it must be highly likely that Clark did disappoint his skipper the truth seems to be more along the lines that Clark flounced out of the club. In February 1937 he took the step of placing an advertisement in a morning newspaper seeking an engagement for the forthcoming season. When the Northamptonshire secretary was approached about the news his account was that the club were talking to Clark and hoped to agree terms with him for the coming campaign, something they clearly failed to do.

Having left county cricket Clark moved to back to the leagues and became Darlington’s professional in the North Yorkshire and South Durham League for 1938 before, the following season, joining West Bromwich Dartmouth. Then it was war, and Clark returned to Northamptonshire and found employment as a local War Agricultural Committee Officer. He continued to play cricket for sides representing Northamptonshire throughout the war and, when the County Championship resumed in 1946 he rejoined the county for a third time. Approaching his 44^th birthday Clark was inevitably not the bowler he had been, but was still as quick as anyone in the country for a few overs and he was a valuable player for Northants in that first post war season. He was less effective the following year and dropped out of the side, this time for good, towards the end of the summer. The county must have been happy with him this time however as before the season was out a collection was arranged for him during the match against Yorkshire.

His Northamptonshire career over Clark was not quite finished with county cricket. He played a few matches in the Minor Counties Championship for Cambridgeshire in 1948 and occasionally in the early 1950s for a team styled as the county of his birth, Huntingdonshire.  Clark married in 1931 and had two children. Eventually the family moved the forty or so miles east to West Winch near Kings Lynn in Norfolk. ‘Nobby’ Clark, something of an unfulfilled talent, died in 1982, three months short of his eightieth birthday. 

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2NoZr51

Almost Forgotten Cricket Writers – Terence Prittie

One of the first cricket books I ever bought, more than thirty years ago now, was Second Innings by Terence Prittie and John Kay. The book was published in Accrington by John Sherratt and Son in 1947, and was subtitled The Revival of Lancashire Cricket. The Red Rose had suffered more than most from the ravages of war, only four regulars from 1939 taking the field in 1946. No one expected much of the side that began that first post war season, but in the event Lancashire ended the summer in third place, just a whisker behind runners-up Middlesex, and Champions Yorkshire were only one more victory away from them. Middlesex had ten pre war regulars available, and Yorkshire could field an entire eleven of them.

Kay was the cricket correspondent of the Manchester Evening News for many years and his was a name I recognised, unlike that of his co-author. Second Innings was an enjoyable read for a Lancashire supporter, and in particular one who, at that point, had never had access to a 1947 Wisden. The book begins with a summary of Lancashire’s season before the bulk of it is taken up with a short report on each of the matches the county played in 1946, followed by brief pen portraits of the players. There is then a closing summary including a look at league cricket in the county. There are 151 pages in all, so Second Innings is not a mighty tome by any means.

In the same parcel that brought Second Innings to my door there was another book written by Prittie, this time on his own, Lancashire Hotpot. That one was published in 1948, by Hutchinson. With one exception the essays in the book were written in 1946. That exception was the final chapter, Looking Forward, that was clearly written after the close of the 1947 season, but before the visit of Bradman’s Invincibles in 1948.

In fact Lancashire Hotpot covers a good deal of the same ground as Second Innings with match reports on Lancashire matches and on the Tests against India. But there are a number of other essays, mainly pen portraits of some interesting cricketers. The book has a degree of enduring appeal because of those, covering as they do some less gifted players, but men who nonetheless make interesting stories. Examples are the Indian Gul Mahommed, one cap wonder Jack Martin of Kent and a couple of captains, David MacIndoe and Peter Cranmer, respectively of Oxford University and Warwickshire.

After those two purchases, inevitably enjoyed because of their content, I might never have given a thought to who Terence Prittie was. I did realise later that he had written a book about Middlesex as well, but it was several years before I picked up a copy of Mainly Middlesex, also published by Hutchinson, and in this case in 1946. It was only when I did eventually pick up a copy that I realised, for the first time, that Prittie was ‘Honourable’. There is then a short foreword from Plum Warner explaining that the book, essentially a collection of essays on Middlesex cricket and cricketers of the inter war years, had been written whilst Prittie was a prisoner of war.

The qualification for the title ‘Honourable’ came from the fact that Prittie’s paternal grandfather was the fourth Baron Dunally, and an Irish hereditary peer. In time Prittie’s father and later his older brother would succeed to the title. There was a strong military background and Prittie’s father spent more than twenty years as an officer in the Rifle Brigade before, badly wounded at Gallipoli. He was then invalided out of the Army with a pension.

Prittie was born in Ireland in 1913, but despite his background there was no silver spoon in his mouth. The family seat was an estate in County Tipperary, Kilboy, but its agricultural business consumed more in the way of resources than it ever generated. On eventually acquiring the Barony Prittie’s father could not make a success of it and in turn, despite a brave attempt, neither could Prittie’s brother when the title passed to him. The estate was sold in the 1950s.

Despite there not being too much money around Prittie was privately educated and in 1937 graduated from Oxford. He had a go at banking, and hated it, and then stockbroking, and was barely more enamoured of that. And then it was war, and Prittie took a commission in the Rifle Brigade.

The Rifle Brigade were despatched to France early in the war and, during the siege of Calais, just before the famous evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, Prittie was captured by the Germans. He was to remain in captivity for five years. In the early part of his incarceration he was involved in five unsuccessful escape attempts and was eventually moved to Colditz. It was the sixth time of asking when he was finally able to regain his liberty when, with the Germans and their prisoners in retreat, he took the opportunity to decamp.

On his return Prittie decided to try his hand at journalism, no doubt encouraged by the appearance in The Cricketer of an article he had managed to get past the German censors whilst incarcerated. He quickly got a job with the Manchester Guardian and for 1946, Neville Cardus at that time still in Australia, he stepped in to the shoes of the best known cricket correspondent of them all.

For 1947 Cardus was back, and there were to be no more cricket books from Prittie. By the time the vintage summer of 1947 had begun he had been sent to Germany as the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, and he was to remain in Germany until 1970.

After leaving his position in Berlin Prittie wrote a number of books including a biography of the first West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and later a biography of one of Adenauer’s successors, Willy Brandt. There was also a book on German wine, but sadly none on cricket.

From 1970 Prittie’s job was a very different one. He was a conservative, which perhaps did not sit terrible easily with the Guardian’s gradual shift of ground towards the liberal left. He was not Jewish, but strongly believed in the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist and his next job was, in his own words, to explain Israel’s case in the Middle East dispute, a task he continued right up to his death.

In 1975 `Prittie wrote an autobiography, Through Irish Eyes. Cricket plays a part, and there are some interesting passages on how, as a child, he was introduced to Warner at Lord’s. But there is no reference at all to cricket playing any part in Prittie’s life after the publication of Lancashire Hotpot – it must be possible that in Germany he just felt too far away from the game, but he must have remained a member of the Cricket Society as his name cropped up occasionally in their journal, although not as the writer of any substantial articles. Maybe there was something more to it, but whatever the reason for it the lack of any further cricket writing from Prittie is a matter of some regret, as those three titles that did appear in 1946 and 1948 are all excellent.

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2N5oslt

World Cup 2019 Podcast – Episode 1

Marco and Ganesh discuss the World Cup so far and what is in store for the next two weeks

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2RnMeYa

Bodyline In Print

The ‘Bodyline’ series of 1932/33 was, at the time of its fiftieth anniversary, responsible for the fascination that cricket literature has held for me ever since. A chance encounter with a copy of The Larwood Story snared a young man who was already fascinated by the game into a trap I would not be able to extricate myself from even if I were to try.

The three main leads in the drama were England skipper Douglas Jardine, his strike bowler Harold Larwood and the Australian batting genius Donald Bradman. On the English sides books were published in the names of Jardine, In Quest of the Ashes, and Larwood weighed in with Bodyline? Bradman made no secret of his disapproval of the tactics designed for the sole purpose of curbing his run scoring, but did not feel the need to publish a book. 

From the press box Bruce Harris of the London Evening Standard wrote Jardine Justified, and the fourth volume from publishers Harrop bearing the title The Fight for the Ashes bore the name of Jack Hobbs, by this time no longer an England player, but still playing under Jardine’s captaincy at Surrey.

In Quest of the Ashes is a bitter book in which Jardine complains about Australian crowds and deliberately eschews the use of the word ‘Bodyline’, preferring to simply refer to ‘leg theory’. It is nonetheless an interesting read and whilst something of a period piece has remained required reading for any student of the period. In Quest of the Ashes has been republished twice, in 1983 with a new introduction from John Arlott, and a quarter of a century later with contributions from Mike Brearley and one of Jardine’s four daughters.

Back in 1932 the cricket correspondent of the Evening Standard was a young EW ‘Jim’ Swanton. More than forty years after the event Swanton suggested in his autobiography that had he been in Australia, rather than Harris, he might have been able to persuade Jardine to give up his leg theory. The notion that Jardine would listen to any journalist, least of all a 25 year old tyro seems fanciful, but certainly the British public might have had a better idea of what was going on. In the event Swanton, apparently, vexed his employers by failing to get his copy in in time to enable the paper to report on Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes’ record opening stand of 555 during the 1932 summer and the paper sent Harris, its lawn tennis correspondent, instead.

In time Harris went on a number of cricket tours and wrote several tour books, but in cricketing terms in 1932/33 he was a lightweight. He was a loyal supporter of Jardine and his tactics and in return Jardine contributed a lengthy foreword to his book, in the course of which he did actually use the word ‘Bodyline’, albeit in scathing and dismissive terms. Larwood’s book, a straightforward ghosted statement in support of himself was more of the same. Jardine again provided a foreword, on this occasion rather less forcefully in the form of a brief letter of appreciation and thanks to Larwood for his efforts on the tour.

Prior to the 1932/33 tour another Surrey player and inspirational captain Percy Fender had written three important books on Ashes tours. As, supposedly, one of the architects of ‘Bodyline’ his inclination would doubtless have been to be supportive of the tactic, although had he thought matters had gone too far he would at least have been the one man whose views Jardine might have taken note of. As it was The Star, which had sent Fender to Australia four years previously, opted for Hobbs and his ghost instead, so another opportunity for an informed and influential observer to report was lost.   Another English writer whose views would have been respected was Neville Cardus, but unfortunately it would be the next tour, that of 1936/37, before the Manchester Guardian sent their man to Australia.

Hobbs did not approve of ‘Bodyline’ at all, but he was in a difficult position if he sought to criticise his county captain. He was fortunate that he was allowed to adopt a passive and neutral position, albeit even then his reservations are apparent. Another Englishman, Gerald French, also wrote a book on the tour and a mighty 600+ page tome it was. Unfortunately for French he was unable to find  publisher so his effort never saw the light of day, although there is a bound copy of the typescript sat in the Library at Lord’s. In truth it is another account that does not court controversy.

In Australia former Test batsman Alan Kippax wrote Anti-Bodyline, a slim and rather fragile paperback which, despite the title and the drawing of a stricken Australian batsman on the front wrapper, is not as sensationalist as it sounds like it might be. It is nonetheless deeply critical of the tactics Jardine adopted. Rather more hardline was the account of RWE Wilmot who wrote for The Argus and The Australasian. His book was entitled Defending the Ashes 1932/33 and his attitude to ‘Bodyline’ was that it was a perversion. Another former Test player, Arthur Mailey, also wrote a book (in addition to producing one of his by then traditional cartoon style tour brochures). And Then Came Larwood was disapproving in a manner similar to that of Hobbs’, but he also found fault with the Australians and, of the contemporary accounts, his is undoubtedly the most measured and received favourable reviews.

By my definition there is another Australian book, The Sporting English, by someone using the nom de plume of Man in the Street. According to Roy Ramsbottom however it is a pamphlet, so as such is beyond the scope of this post. I will therefore say nothing more than that the position of Man in the Street makes Wilmot read like a neutral.

In the years that followed ‘Bodyline’ cropped up in many books that were not devoted solely to the series and to mention all of them would make this post unrealistically long, but one autobiography merits some mention as it is that of Bradman. Farewell to Cricket appeared in 1950. Bradman’s attitude to ‘Bodyline’ had always been one of the strongest possible disapproval, and his lingering bitterness almost twenty years on is clear from the in relative terms short chapter that he writes under the heading Bodyline.

At least Bradman was never hit by ‘Bodyline’. One Australian batsman who was, and repeatedly, was Jack Fingleton. In the late 1940s Fingo amply demonstrated that he held no grudges when he helped Larwood to emigrate to Australia with his family. In 1946 Fingo, who had always been a journalist even in his playing days, published Cricket Crisis, largely a retrospective account of the 1932/33 series. Fingleton was still critical of Bodyline, but with the benefit of more than a decade’s hindsight his is a balanced and well written book.

In 1965, with the assistance of Kevin Perkins, the first edition of The Larwood Story appeared. The book is a genuine autobiography but at the same time is dominated by a full account of the tour. The book is infinitely better than Bodyline?, and rather more measured, but Larwood’s views were essentially unchanged.

A further important account emerged in 1974 when RS ‘Dick’ Whittington helped George Hele to write his story. Bodyline Umpire is the story of the man who stood with George Borwick in all five Tests. One of the more curious aspects of the whole controversy is that neither side were critical of the umpires.

Four years later historian EW Docker wrote Bradman and the Bodyline and with a new edition of The Larwood Story it was joined in 1982 by Ronald Mason’s Ashes in the Mouth. In 1983 Laurence Le Quesne’s The Bodyline Conspiracy appeared and was, at that stage, the best single account of the episode, a title it continued to deserve right up until 2002, but the last twenty years of the twentieth century saw no let up.

First of all Australian writer Philip Derriman produced two books in 1984, both bearing the title Bodyline. One is a narrative account of the serious, with little outstanding about it, but the other is a very different book as it largely consists of a bewilderingly large selection of images of the series – I have always dubbed it the ‘Bodyline picture book’, and a very fine effort it is too. In the same year Ric Sissons and Brian Stoddart published Cricket and Empire.

An interesting book appeared in 1992. For Gerard French in England in 1933 read Gilbert Mant in Australia. Mant, an Australian, had been the Reuters correspondent throughout the series. Reuters had a reputation they valued for being impartial reporters of news and when Mant sought permission to publish his book, and made it clear he disapproved of the English tactics, he was not permitted to publish at the time and it was therefore almost sixty years on, by which time Mant was the last man from the press box still alive, that Cuckoo in the Bodyline Nest appeared. Interestingly both Mant’s and Hele’s book have on their jackets the same iconic image of Larwood in his delivery stride.

And then in 2002 David Frith’s magnum opus appeared. Surely a book as comprehensive as Bodyline Autopsy, CricketWeb’s Book of the Decade for the noughties, had to be the last word? Well actually not. Since then 2005 saw the publication of Gubby Allen – Bad Boy of Bodyline by Brian Rendell, a book looking at the letters home written by Allen during the tour, and then in 2009 Michael Arnold’s Bodyline Hypocrisy – that was ten years ago now though – so perhaps we have now had the last word?

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2XePgDt

Crusoe

As the name suggests Raymond Robertson-Glasgow was a Scotsman, born in 1901. It is something of a commentator’s nightmare, but that didn’t bother anyone after 21 May 1920 when, whilst playing for Oxford University against Essex, Robertson-Glasgow bowled the veteran Essex opening batsman Charlie McGahey with a full toss. Returning to the pavilion McGahey, furious with himself, complained to his skipper, Johnny Douglas that his dismissal had been effected by an old bugger I thought had been dead for two thousand years, Robinson Crusoe.

Crusoe, as he was forever to be known, had an unusual background, and one very much of its time. His father was a military man who subsequently managed a Scottish estate. He seems to have had no interest in cricket or, more generally, his two children and Crusoe’s mother, to whom oddly enough Crusoe was devoted, does not appear to have been a maternal woman at all. In the circumstances much of young Crusoe’s time was spent with his father’s chauffeur, and it is he who fostered the interest in cricket.

Eventually young Crusoe was sent to a prep school in Surrey, from whence it was Charterhouse and then Oxford to read Classics. In each of his four years at Oxford Crusoe won a blue. He was a fast medium right arm bowler who although probably just short of Test class, must have come pretty close to earning an invitation to tour Australia with Arthur Gilligan’s side in 1924/25.

By that time Crusoe had played a good deal of cricket. In addition to his games for the University he was also playing county cricket in the later weeks of each season. His first five wicket haul for the University had come against Somerset and, with no affiliation to any other county, Crusoe was happy to accept an invitation from skipper Jack Daniell to play for them later in the summer.

In 1923, a year in which there were no visitors to England and no winter tour, Crusoe took 108 wickets at 18.33 in the only full season he was ever to play. Teaching kept him occupied for most of 1924, but against Middlesex at Lord’s in only his second game of the summer, in what were apparently benign conditions, he took 9-38 and in the course of that hitting the stumps seven times. A reasonable showing followed on the only occasion he was ever chosen to play for the Gentlemen at Lord’s, but that showpiece fixture turned out to be the highlight of Crusoe’s time as a player.

There was never a proper career path for Crusoe who, as noted, went into teaching after graduating. He taught at his old prep school in Surrey. He also did some writing, and eventually impressed the editor of the Morning Post sufficiently to be offered a post in 1933, initially as golf correspondent. In time he was to move on to the Daily Telegraph, The Observer and finally the Sunday Times.

The black dog of depression stalked Crusoe throughout his life. He had his first breakdown at University in 1921, and it was by no means the last. His recurrent troubles are well known and chronicled in a number of places, but it is a subject that Crusoe himself, perhaps understandably, rarely mentioned. He couldn’t avoid the issue altogether however, and in his autobiography, 46 Not Out, wrote only those who have suffered it know the hell of mental illness. In the more enlightened times in which we now live, where cricketers no longer have the same reticence in discussing mental health, one wonders what he might have added.

The first suicide attempt was in the early 1930s, and Crusoe was left with scars on his neck to remind him of it. Subsequent attempts were overdoses, although on at least one occasion he notified others of what he had done in sufficient time to ensure he was not lost to us. He was hospitalised on several occasions when his mental health broke down.

Crusoe was never, it would seem, what would in those days have been called a ‘lady’s man’ but in 1943 he married Elizabeth, who he had met when she had nursed him in a Northampton hospital five years previously. The alliance was a happy one, although hard work for Elizabeth, who had to look after Crusoe almost like a child. According to his step son Crusoe’s practical skills did not extend beyond boiling a kettle, and despite his career in the press he did not own a typewriter, and all his copy was written by hand.

Only 52 when he gave up the job of cricket correspondent with The Observer Crusoe spent the rest of his life writing from his home in Berkshire on a freelance basis. He had a regular column in the Sunday Times, but that apart was able to pick and choose what he did. His mental health troubles never left him and eventually, in 1965, whilst snowed in at home he took an overdose of barbiturates and this time there was not time enough for him to be pulled back from the brink. The build up of snow prevented the ambulance getting to him as speedily as it might, and although some have suggested that anguish at the severe weather was the catalyst for taking the overdose that does not in fact seem to be the case.

There are similarities between Crusoe and his famous contemporary, Neville Cardus. Both have reputations based on their writing for newspapers rather than in book form, and both their oeuvres stand the test of time very well, but the styles are very different. Cardus’ writing is descriptive and discursive, whereas Crusoe’s has a lightness of touch and economy of words that Cardus never sought to achieve.

The pair did, of course, know each other. Did they get on well? It is clear from the writings of others of their time that Crusoe was popular and well liked amongst his fellow writers, whereas Cardus was perhaps more respected than genuinely liked. The pair seem however to have got on well. In Second Innings Cardus described Crusoe as enriching the press box, and that he was charged with brain and wit as much as anybody. Crusoe’s view of Cardus, in typical style, was that he made cricket readers of many who would not cross the road to see a stump fly or a ball driven against the sight screen.

Neither Cardus nor Crusoe ever wrote up a life of anyone other than themselves. Like Cardus Crusoe only ever wrote one cricket book on a single subject, and indeed it was the same subject, an Ashes tour of Australia. Unlike the book Cardus wrote on the 1936/37 Ashes series however for a variety of reasons although Crusoe’s on the 1950/51 series was completed it never appeared.

The first book Crusoe published had appeared in 1933 and was titled The Brighter Side Of Cricket. It contains some poetry, a bit of fiction and short pieces concerned with all levels of the game.  In the words of Alan Ross its contents are what cricket is really about, its jokey comedy, its rich nostalgia and fantasies.

The best known Crusoe titles appeared in 1943 and 1948, Cricket Prints and More Cricket Prints. These are, in large part, collections of player profiles that first appeared in The Observer, more in the nature of vignettes than essays. They are universally excellent, and to give a flavour of what any reader can expect the following are extracts:-

On Yorkshire and England opening batsman Herbert Sutcliffe;

…. the sort of man who would rather miss a train than run for it, and so be seen in disorder and heard breathing heavily.

On the majestic Kent left hander Frank Woolley;

….. he was easy to watch, difficult to bowl to, and impossible to write about. When you bowled to him there weren’t enough fielders and when you wrote about him there weren’t enough words.

On the unconventional Surrey all-rounder and captain Percy Fender;

….. he hated the dull finish, the formal declaration, the expected stroke, the workaday over.He rescued treasures of cricket from dust and oblivion, snatched off the covering, and showed them to an astounded and delighted public.

On Kent and England leg spinner Doug Wright;

… the art of which Wright is so fine an exponent, is a mysterious thing. We may envy it, bat fleetingly against it, observe it from close quarters or through telescopes, but I doubt if we ever quite understand it well enough to become fully qualified as critics.

On the Middlesex and England batsman Bill Edrich, on the subject of his bowling;

His bowling at times is genuinely fast. His run up is of only eight or nine yards, but he covers them as if he had seen a sudden opening in the defence at White Hart Lane, and he hurls the ball with a full swing of back and arm.

On Edrich’s ‘twin’, the brilliant Denis Compton;

Enjoyment , given and felt, is the chief thing about Compton’s batting. It has the ease and freshness which the formality of the First Class game has not injured. It is a clear flowing stream; a breath of half holiday among work days.

and finally, on the greatest of them all, Don Bradman;

…. was that rarest of nature’s creations, an artist without the handicap of the artistic temperament, a genius with an eye to business. In the commerce of cricket he was the best salesman that the game has yet seen.

And that, realistically, was the end of Crusoe’s ‘serious’ cricket writing. There are three more books, but they are more akin to The Brighter Side Of Cricket than the two Prints books. The first was Rain Stopped Play, a slim 96 page volume comprising as many as fifty short pieces culled from the pages of The Observer. A few pieces at the end are short articles about individual players, but there are only five of those.

The penultimate cricket book from Crusoe’s pen was All In The Game, which appeared in 1952. Another collection of fillers from The Observer it is much the same in scope as its predecessor and both books, and indeed The Brighter Side of Cricket all appear in Padwick in a section entitled Anecdote, Humour and Satire. There is some serious stuff in All In The Game however, in particular a memorable and moving tribute to Harold Larwood, from a good opening bowler to a great one, to mark Larwood’s migration to Australia in 1950; Boys ask, “How fast was Larwood” …… the answer is, about as fast as a human being can bowl, and as straight.

The last contribution to cricket literature from Crusoe is listed in the same part of Padwick, and was published in 1962, How To Become A Test Cricketer. I do not own the book so cannot comment further, but Crusoe’s great champion Ross draws a veil over it, expressing the view it contained nothing that Crusoe had not already done better in the past.

It is tempting to leave the last word on Crusoe to Ross, who collected together all of Crusoe’s best work in the finest anthology the game has produced, Crusoe on Cricket, in 1966, but in the end I thought I would leave that to West Country writer David Foot, who turns 90 this year and who wrote compellingly about Crusoe in his Fairfield Books published Fragments of Idolatory in 2001; Wonderful, cheerful, felicitous, sad, eternally paradoxical Crusoe.

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2I2PNQK

Virat Kohli’s form makes 2019 a ‘now or never’ affair for India

Though there are plenty of potential surprise packages at the upcoming Cricket World Cup, there seems to be near-universal confidence that England and India will be the two teams battling it out at Lord’s on 14 July. Fans, pundits and bookmakers alike appear united in this belief, but they would be decidedly less so if it were not for one man.

Currently favourite with all bookmakers to finish as the World Cup’s top batsman, India captain Virat Kohli knows that his form will be the telling factor in India’s overall performance. There is presently much optimism surrounding the man many consider to be the world’s number one batsman, and he has looked like a man possessed at times since the last World Cup.

July 2018: India dominate England in 1st ODI of tour.

Few rivals for India in 2019 – if any

 
 
A huge believer in advanced methods of training, Kohli is a born leader, who has taken the captain’s armband in a very meaningful way since the last World Cup. His desire to go above and beyond the call of duty provides much of the reasoning behind India’s lofty standing, as close second-favourites to win the tournament.

So too does the unique nature of his relationship with previous skipper MS Dhoni, whose presence as the elder of the team – and a World Cup-winning captain in 2011 – is just as vital as the fours and sixes Kohli is expected to land in every game. His calming influence is the perfect foil to Kohli’s boundless and unconditional ferocity, no matter how superior the opposition.

Arguably, there are perhaps only one or two opponents that could stop India from making it two World Cups in eight years. This is reflected by a range of in-depth World Cup guides, including the one currently available on AsiaBet. Curiously though, there is nothing especially new about Kohli’s phased approach to batting, which has given him the status as the bookmakers’ likeliest top run scorer.

Ranked in order of likelihood, these are the contenders to be the 2019 World Cup’s top batsman.

Kohli breaking the mould

 
 
Despite being seen as the face of a brave new India that fears nobody, Kohli stays relatively reserved in the early overs of ODI matches, maintaining a run-rate of around four runs per over across the first fifteen overs. Typically, that average leaps drastically thereafter, but by the time the 40th over has been played, his average typically doubles – and more.

Unlike so many other pretenders, Kohli is not a player who relies on confidence, and a number of significant early hits to settle his nerves. Instead, he bides his time, and by surviving the opposition’s initial eagerness to dismiss him, he forces them to change up their bowling methods. Kohli almost instinctively knows when this is likely to happen, and exploits any unfamiliarity with any alternate bowling methods, or fielding setups, that the opposition may feel compelled to use.

While his ability to get into the head of opponents is admirable, the physical aspects of his default game also come as a surprise to unsuspecting bowlers and fielders. Contrary to how countless Indians have been coached in previous generations, Kohli’s backlift prior to the strike is a relatively short one, as is the follow-through.

A quick wrist-flick at the point of contact ensures great power though, and catches even seasoned fielders off-guard. Additionally, by allowing balls to fly at him, he is able to maintain a hit rate that can only be described as ‘immense’ for a number-three batsman.

January 2019: India captain Virat Kohli hits his 39th ODI century.

Assessing India’s chances in 2019

 
 
India’s first two opening fixtures undoubtedly present a unique challenge, with several ‘danger men’ that have the capability of causing a shock.

First up is a match against a South Africa team that suffered heartbreak at the previous World Cup, setting a target of 298 for New Zealand to chase in the semi-finals, which the Kiwis miraculously beat. Quinton de Kock will certainly be one to watch in the opening round, with the South African power-hitter very much the ‘Kohli’ of that team.

Aidan Markram is also a dangerous foe for Kohli – and, indeed, any Indian – with a catch that is notable for its acrobatic qualities. A difficult opening trio is completed by reigning champions Australia and 2015 runners up New Zealand, but victory in the opening game should give them the momentum they need to press on in a positive direction.

Beyond this point, an India side that has won over half of its historic ODIs should win every fixture until the showdown with England, which unfolds in the seventh set of group games, and will likely determine the group winner.

Rameez Raja looks at India’s first World Cup opponents South Africa.

‘Personal’ mission redoubles Kohli’s threat

 
 
Entering May 2019 having hit 41 ODI centuries across just 227 games, Kohli is quickly closing in on Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar’s own tally of hundreds in that famously demanding format. This gives him a personal agenda, although his professionalism will ensure that it plays second fiddle to the team’s interests.

His all-power batting style consistently makes a mockery of even the greatest ODI fielders in existence, but Kohli’s own worshippers will do well to remember that he is just one man. Indeed, should anything happen to MS Dhoni, Kholi would be nowhere near as effective as he can be. So too would his effectiveness be severely diluted if vice-captain Rohit Sharma was to suffer an early dismissal.

Overall, India’s core of players have every chance of going all the way, but it would be foolhardy to totally ignore any team within the top-five of any bookmaker’s outright list.

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/31kK0xg

How to Bet on Cricket Safer, Smarter!

I’m going to be a hundred percent honest. I know nothing about cricket. Or fantasy cricket. Or sports. I do know that everyone likes money, however, and that plenty of sports fans want to place bets on their favorite players, in a safe, fast, and fair system. I also know a thing or two about safe and fair gambling and betting.

So I’m going to recommend two different services tailored and designed for sports fans to have the time of their life, without worrying about anything other than the fate of your favorite players – Intertops mobile casino and Wagerr!

Intertops

If you’re looking for a place to, well, place bets, then I recommend the Intertops Online Casino. The Intertops Casino itself was established in 1983, and went online in 1996, making it one of the oldest Online Casinos on the market.

Being around for so long pretty much proves that they’ve been doing something right, right? Aside from being Time-Tested, Intertops has a large sportsbook designed

purposefully so that you can safely bet on your favorite games, including, of course, cricket. The sportsbook also offers a $200 sign up bonus to get started, so you can win money without even having to spend any!

If you’re interested in betting on the go, you can always check out the Intertops mobile casino, so you can check in anytime, anywhere.

Wagerr

Of course, you may not want to deal with a middle-man at all. They take fees, bog down your time, and can be incredibly unfair to you, the consumer. Allow me to direct you’re attention to cryptocurrency. I should explain what cryptocurrency is before continuing. If you already know what cryptocurrency is, or don’t care to know how it works, then skip the next paragraph.

Imagine a currency not connected to a country and is used solely through the internet. This currency would be made out of the results of a mathematical formula, and the value of such a currency would be determined by how hard it was for a computer to calculate the answer of the mathematical formula. You could then trade such a currency anonymously and directly through the internet without any middle men, such as bookies or banks, getting a share of the dough. That’s what cryptocurrency offers.

Coming back around to sports, and the reason I bring this up is because of a cryptocurrency called Wagerr. It calls itself a “decentralized betting block chain”, which is fancy cryptocurrency technojargon for “internet coin for betting”, and before I get too into it, yes, it’s perfectly legal. Because of Wagerr’s nature as a digital currency, Wagerr fees are lower than regular sportsbooks and allows users to bet on games happening anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world. However, what makes Wagerr stand out from other cryptocurrencies is a system called “value coupling.”

When you make a bet, a certain percentage gets taken out as fees. A percentage goes to the development of Wagerr, and fifty percent of the coin gets destroyed. Deleted. Kaput. By removing some of the Wagerr coins from existence, the value of those that remain increases. You bet half of your coins, the other half rises in value to compensate. More coins are eventually generated, and the price gets reduced, in a cycle.

The idea is to encourage betting, so that people will bet more, more confidently, because they know that- win or lose- what they have left will be worth more, regardless. That’s “value coupling”.

I hope I have piqued your interest. As I said, I may know little about sports and cricket, but I do know that everyone likes a fair game. If you’ve got the time, check out the Intertops Mobile Casino and the Wagerr Coin!

 

from Cricket Web http://bit.ly/2EXO2Cy

The Man Who Changed Cricket Writing Forever – Neville Cardus

It is the best part of half a century since Sir Neville Cardus died. He is the man who is acknowledged by all as having influenced cricket writing more than anyone else in the sport’s history. Before Cardus came along those who wrote about the game were reporters, and none adopted the sort of approach to their craft that Cardus introduced. That Cardus is still regarded as important is evidenced by the fact that a new book about him appeared only last year, and this year a man who is undoubtedly one of the very best sportswriters currently active, Duncan Hamilton, will publish a full biography.

The Cardus legacy is not however without controversy. The man who did not begin writing about the game until he was past thirty, just after the Great War, was the subject of an article a few weeks ago by historian and writer Arunabha Sengupta entitled The Charming Charlatan of Cricket Writing. Sengupta’s colleague Abhishek Mukherjee went further, describing Cardus on Twitter as the greatest liar in the history of cricket writing.

The reason for the expressed disquiet is what was neatly described in the sub-title of last year’s Cardus book, Christopher O’Brien’s Cardus Uncovered; The Truth, the Untruth and the Higher Truth. It has been known for some time that Cardus’ account of his own life and  family history was littered with inaccuracies, and subsequent research has demonstrated that not all of what was described in a Cardus match report was necessarily what actually happened. On occasion it seems also that Cardus was not beyond dashing off a report of a day’s play at which he was not even present.

The evidence against Cardus in respect of all these charges is strong, but how culpable was he? In respect of his family history it is points of detail he got wrong, rather than significant matters of fact. He clearly wasn’t by inclination a great researcher, and it seems likely there was a major role in these inaccuracies for over-reliance on the memory of others, with a degree of straightforward laziness. As to the match reports and the referenced embellishments this is where O’Brien’s ‘higher truth’ comes in.

At the end of the day however does all this really matter? I recall many years ago reading a long and persuasive article in one of what in those days was called a ‘Sunday Supplement’ that sought to assert that the works of William Shakespeare were actually written by not one other individual, but a selection of them. Being an argumentative fifteen year old at the time I thought I would take this up with my English Literature teacher, ‘Miss Aggie’, who could be a bit of a harridan at times. Having steeled myself for an argument I was, to say the least, deflated by the laugh my comment got coupled with the observation ‘so what Chandler? The plays exist, why does the name of the author matter?

Exactly the same principle applies with Cardus’ writing, and there is perhaps a certain playfulness at work as well. The genius sometimes likes to play games with his audience. A classic example of that is the even greater legend that is Bob Dylan, parts of whose autobiography are pure fiction.

Over the course of his writing career Cardus’ output was considerable, although there were relatively few books, and most of those that there were were collections of essays, some of which had already appeared elsewhere in more ephemeral publications.

The first Cardus book appeared in 1921, and A Cricketer’s Book is similar in format to almost all that followed. The book comes in three parts, the first of which comprises twenty five essays, mainly player profiles but interspersed with occasional match reports. One is certainly from Cardus’ imagination as he told the story of the famous 1882 match at the Oval between England and Australia. It is an excellent essay, but shows up that lack of detailed research by making no mention of the famous incident when Sammy Jones was run out by WG at a point when the young Australian was out of his crease, believing the ball to dead.

The book moves on to reproduce Cardus’ reports from each of the five Tests of 1921, a few reflections on the Australians and, finally, the tale of Cardus’ famous ‘scoop’ when he was persuaded by Archie MacLaren to go and watch MacLaren’s all amateur side take on and sensationally beat Warwick Armstrong’s, up until then, unbeaten Australians.

In 1924 Days in the Sun appeared followed, five years later in 1929, by The Summer Game: A Cricketer’s Journal. The latter was the only Cardus original title to be issued in a signed and numbered limited edition, printed on large paper and with an attractive dust jacket. Both were more of the same, collections of essays of varying sorts. The former contained 29 essays and ten shorter pieces that Cardus described as ‘silhouettes’. The Summer Game comprised 32 essays.

In 1930 a further collection of essays appeared, simply entitled Cricket. In a sense the book is in the same format, but for some it is not part of the main Cardus oeuvre. In the main the essays are about the game and how it is played, more than the men and the matches, but it certainly should not be disregarded.

In 1934 Good Days appeared. Again there was a selection of essays on players, and in a nod back to the format of A Cricketer’s Book Good Days also collected together Cardus’ reports on the 1934 Ashes. It was a formula to be repeated in the two post war Cardus collections, Cricket all the Year and Close of Play, published in 1952 and 1956 respectively and containing Cardus’ thoughts, in each case, on the previous winter’s Ashes series in Australia.

Only once, with Australian Summer, did Cardus ever devote a cricket book to a single subject, in that case the Ashes series of 1936/37. Even that however was, of course, essentially a collection of reports he had already written for his employer, the Manchester Guardian.

Whilst the lights were out in Europe for the duration of the Second World War Cardus spent the years from 1940 to 1947 in Australia. He plied his other trade, that of music critic, and worked on Autobiography, published in 1947. The book was supplemented by Second Innings, which appeared in 1950.

Close of Play was the last ‘original’ Cardus book, although by no means the final word. Some of his work had already been gathered together as the The Essential Neville Cardus in 1949 and there have been many selections since. Some of the contents came from his books, and others were ‘new’ material from the archives of The Guardian and many other newspapers and periodicals that Cardus had written for over the years. The interest is still there and a new anthology, including an introduction from no less a writer than Gideon Haigh, is due for release at the end of July of this year – much will doubtless be familiar, but Cardus’ reports on the 1946/47 Ashes series have never appeared in book form before – perhaps at long last they will see the light of day?

There was much about Cardus and his life that defied convention, not least of which was his marriage. Cardus married Edith in 1921 and the couple were always close, but rarely lived together. At the time of Edith’s death in 1968 she was living in a flat in London whilst Cardus spent most of his time at the National Liberal Club, only moving into Edith’s flat after she had died. Cardus himself was 86 when he died in 1975.

Always a fascinating figure Cardus was the subject of a 1985 biography by Christopher Brookes and another book about him, Cardus: Celebrant of Beauty, by Robin Daniels appeared in 2009. The Nevile Cardus Archive at Old Trafford has produced five booklets in recent years, and has no plans to stop collecting Cardus material and researching it. Given also the recent appearance of O’Brien’s book and now that from Hamilton there is, whatever criticisms some may level at Cardus, no reduction in the interest in him, his unconventional life and his legacy of writing on the game.

The one failing that Cardus seems to have had is an inability take on a detailed project, or one that required any great research. As noted it is not something he ever attempted in a cricketing context, and his one tilt at the genre in the field of music led to a series of negative reviews. Cardus planned a two volume work on the Austro-German composer Gustav Mahler but, no doubt evidencing also a sensitivity to criticism, after the reception the first book received the second never appeared.

Had he had the capacity for hard work Cardus might have proved to be the definitive biographer of Victor Trumper. Cardus was at Old Trafford in 1902 for the fourth Test of the Ashes series when Trumper, in a summer in which he carried all before him, scored a century before lunch. Cardus knew and got on well with many of Trumper’s contemporaries and, whilst many of those in Australia were still alive he spent those years in Australia during the war. As it was by the time anyone got round to writing Trumper’s life story, and a few have tried, the passage of time denied them many opportunities that Cardus would have had if he had decided to write a book on the man who was the subject of some of his most evocative writing, including this passage from Autobiography:-

He was the most gallant and handsome batsman of them all; he possessed a certain chivalrous manner, a generous and courtly poise. But his swift and apparent daring, the audacity of his prancing footwork, were governed by a technique of rare accuracy and range. Victor was no mere batsman of impulsive genius.; he hit the ball with the middle of his bat’s blade – even when he pulled from the middle stump round to square leg. In my memory’s anthology of all the delights I have known, in many years devoted to the difficult but entrancing art of changing raw experiences into the connoisseur’s enjoyment of life, I gratefully place the cricket of Victor Trumper.

I suspect views on Cardus are, rather like those on Brexit, of a kind that are set in stone for all, with no one ever changing their mind. Of course, and again like Brexit, that knowledge never stops us from arguing our case with those with whom we disagree, and whilst I am confident that nothing in The Great Romantic will alter my opinions on Neville Cardus it will be interesting, in a few weeks’ time, to see what conclusions Duncan Hamilton’s researches have led him to – it is certainly a book I am looking forward to reading.

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