JW McKenzie: Cricket’s Bookman

The first catalogue issued by John McKenzie appeared back in 1972, so the best part of a half a century ago now. He has just issued Catalogue 200, a bumper 168 pages with well over 1,100 items. More than half of the catalogue is taken up with books, but autographs, postcards and prints have their own sections. There are a few ceramics bringing up the rear, so it is certainly a case of ‘something for everyone’.

Interestingly Catalogue 200 allows John’s customers to have a glimpse of the man himself. A couple of recent articles from The Cricketer and The Cricket Paper are reproduced, and there are appreciations from an Australian customer, Peter Lloyd, and an old friend, Vic Rigby, whose name will crop up again later. There are even a few words from John himself, and a photograph that confirms the passing years are treating him very well.

A year after Catalogue 1 John’s business moved into the shop premises in Ewell it has occupied ever since. Eight rooms of books and other memorabilia are more than sufficient to set a cricket tragic’s pulse racing, but it is not the selling of cricketana that is the main purpose of this article. By the end of the 1970s John had embarked on his first publishing project and ever since all collectors have had cause to be grateful to him for his unstinting efforts in that department.

Wisely John started his publishing career with a book on the Ashes, a subject he revisited a number of times. That said there are plenty of subjects that have been covered over the years, and the rest of this article will look at them all, one by one.

The origin of the best known rivalry in sport was ‘Spofforth’s Match’. That game and its aftermath has been the catalyst for a number of books over the years, but there was only one contemporary account of the doings of the party led by The Honourable Ivo Bligh, that ventured forth to Australia just a few weeks later to try and avenge that famous 1882 defeat at The Oval. The account was published in Melbourne and written by RD Beeston and, as important as the narrative, contained a number of cartoons by MCB Massie. Both seem to have been army men holidaying in Australia.

St Ivo and the Ashes in no way resembles what the tour book was to become, but is an entertaining if short description of the cricket that was played. The cartoons are excellent and, perhaps unexpectedly, there are scorecards of the matches and statistics of the series. There are also some advertising pages which, as period pieces, become infinitely more interesting as time passes. The book is an exact facsimile of the original to which is added a three page foreword by John Arlott and, reprinted from its 1884 edition, the Wisden account of the tour.

The book is, probably, the most difficult of the McKenzie reprints to acquire and, appearing in a numbered limited edition of just 75 copies, the smallest limitation John has used. It is still a great deal cheaper than the original however, which sold for £4,200 at the Curry* sale in 2006. Catalogue 200 lists a copy of the reprint at £200.

Curiosities of Cricket by An Old Cricketer (AL Ford) was the next to appear. This 48 page book was originally published in 1897 in a limited edition of 25 copies. At the Curry sale a copy was sold for £1,200 which, given that we do not know how many copies of St Ivo and the Ashes were printed, is an interesting figure. John’s original print run was limited to 150 books, which must have sold well as he published another edition in 1989. The 1978 edition is more expensive than the 1989, but neither will break the bank. As the name suggests the book is a collection of odd incidents, including 26 deaths of players engaged in matches, and if it has a fault it is a lack of detail in respect of some truly bizarre occurrences. In addition to an exact facsimile of Ford’s text there is also a four page introduction from Irving Rosenwater, most of which is taken up by debunking a theory that ‘An Old Cricketer’ was in fact someone other than AL Ford. Catalogue 200 lists the 1989 edition at £12.

In 1979 John, again with the benefit of an introduction from Arlott running to nine pages, republished Some Recollections of Cricket by Lord Charles Russell. A small 60 page book appeared in an edition of only a dozen copies on publication in 1879, and the 100 in John’s limited edition have acquired a not insignificant value of their own. At the Eagar sale a copy sold for £2,880. Catalogue 200 has a copy at £75.

John’s other publication in 1979 was of a book originally published in Sydney in 1878; The Australian Cricketers’ Tour Through Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain by PE Reynolds. Those Australians did not play any Tests, although they recorded a famous victory over the MCC. The book contains a faithful commentary of each match and, in the manner of the times, contains some interesting advertisements. The reprint, which contains a new introduction, uncredited but written by John himself, was limited to 150 copies and is not an easy book to obtain. The original is exceptionally rare, a copy changing hands at the Curry sale for £19,200 (against an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000). Catalogue 200 has a copy of the reprint at £100.

There was just one reprint in 1981, of Thomas Boxall’s Rules and Instructions at the Game of Cricket. The one area of cricket literature that is most neglected is the instructional book, but Boxall was the first ever, originally published back in 1801. The McKenzie edition has a nine page introduction by Diana Rait Kerr, who spent many years as the curator of the museum at Lord’s. At the Curry sale a copy was sold for £960. One of the limited edition reprint of 150 will not set a buyer back anything like that much, but still commands a premium over its original selling price. In Catalogue 200 it is £85.

In 1982, in order to mark a centenary, John republished Charles Pardon’s account of the visit to England of William Murdoch’s Australians thus, effectively, a prequel to Beeston. The Australians in England has a five page introduction by Geoffrey Moorehouse which prefaces a detailed account of the tour, reprinted from the popular magazine Bell’s Life. As usual there are some interesting advertisements and the 120 copies printed have risen steadily in value. Perhaps because this one was published in England the original is nothing like so rare as Beeston or Reynolds, the copy at the Curry sale achieving a relatively modest £300. A copy of the reprint will, as per Catalogue 200, set a purchaser back to the tune of £65.

Two years later, in 1984 a very similar book by Pardon, with the same title, covered the 1884 series. Once more Moorehouse contributed the foreword, but this time there were 150 copies. Catalogue 200 does not however distinguish the books on grounds of price, this one also being £65.

Also published in 1984 was the second edition of EW ‘Tim’ Padwick’s Bibliography of Cricket, on this occasion John collaborating with the Library Association over the book. Not a limited edition as such there were 750 copies of the 904 page magnum opus printed. Later books have expanded the Padwick ‘brand’ but no one has ever attempted a true third edition, something which constraints of size would now make all but impossible anyway. The book is an essential tool for anyone seeking to establish a serious collection of cricket literature. To readers of Catalogue 200 the cost is £100.

John’s next reprint appeared the following year, 1985, and was another centenary publication, this time of the release of a book by Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury that contained an account of their tour of Australia in 1884/85. This one contains an introduction by Arlott, and on this occasion was limited to 200 copies and has held its value well. There were two copies of the original in the Curry sale, which fetched £780 and £840. There is a copy available in Catalogue 200 at £85.

There was also a change of direction in 1985 in that John published his first title that was not a reprint. The Art of Nicholas Felix was written by Gerald Brodribb and appeared in a signed and numbered limited edition of 220 copies. Felix, born Nicholas Wanostrocht, was one of the leading players of the 1840s and was also a writer and artist. In 1962 Brodribb’s biography of Felix had been published and this one is, essentially, a supplement to that cataloguing Felix’ work. The book does not appear on the market very often, although when it does it is not prohibitively expensive, Catalogue 200 listing it at £20.

1987 saw a return to the reprint, and a very scare account of the tour to South Africa of 1888/89. The Cricketing Record of Major Warton’s Tour was published in South Africa and the original is seldom seen. John’s book appeared in a numbered limited edition of 200 copies with a four page introduction by David Rayvern Allen. It is a bulky book, including its splendid advertisements running to well over 200 pages, and if anything seems scarcer than the shorter runs of Pardons and the Shaw and Shrewsbury. The original certainly is rare, a copy having changed hands at the Eagar sale for £4,200. There are two copies in Catalogue 200, an original at £5,000, or a reprint at £75.

In 1988 John published a reprint of Lillywhite’s Illustrated Handbook of Cricket, that had originally been published in 1844 in three alternative editions containing either one, four or eight illustrations. This is not to be confused with any of the subsequent annuals that appeared under the banner of different members of the Lillywhite family, and was not repeated. The facsimile is, unsurprisingly, of the more extensive of the three variants and contains a four page introduction from Arlott. This very slim volume was not, for once, issued in a specific limitation and remains available at £28. As far as an original is concerned a copy of the full edition reached £6,000 in the Curry sale. 

As the 1980s came to a close there were three more facsimile reprints of very different types. First was Recollections of Lord’s and the Marylebone Cricket Club by William Slatter. The 32 page memoir of a member of the Lord’s groundstaff was originally published ‘for private circulation’ in 1914. Brodribb was responsible for a two page introduction to the new edition. Again there was no limitation and this one is currently available at £21.

The second book issued in 1989 was The Third Australian Team in England and, as with the first Pardon, it is a reprint of a contemporary account of the 1882 Australian tour. Again an ‘unlimited’ edition this book is not a costly one, although as there was no copy available in either the Curry or Eagar sales it must remain rare in its original form. In Catalogue 200 the reprint is available at £18.

Finally in 1989 John brought us a reprint of Grand Matches of Cricket 1771 to 1791 by William Epps. An ‘Epps’ is right up there with Britcher’s Scores in terms of its rarity and importance to collectors. As a source of reading it is, like Britcher, nothing more than a collection of scorecards, and fairly rudimentary at that, the only narrative content being the excellent five page introduction by David Rayvern Allen. The book, another unlimited edition, is still available in Catalogue 200 at £21, a snip compared to the cost of an original. There are only a handful of copies known to exist, and at the Eagar sale one of those went for a cool £90,000.

In October 1990 John retrod familiar ground once more with a second reprint of a book on the 1884 series. The contemporary competition for the second Pardon came from a collection of the writings on the tour that had previously appeared in Cricket, A Weekly Record which were gathered together as The Doings of the Fourth Australian Cricket Team. A copy of this unlimited edition can be obtained via Catalogue 200, a snip at £12.

John Arlott departed this mortal coil in December 1991. Back in 1957 he had published a monograph on the subject of Ted Alletson’s remarkable innings of 189 for Nottinghamshire against Sussex in 1911. For a new McKenzie edition copies and transcriptions of correspondence were added as well as additional photographs and a new introduction. There was also a new limited edition (the original 1957 book had appeared in one as well) this being a signed and numbered run of 250 copies. The shaky signature of Arlott circa 1991 is in stark contrast to the bold signature usually seen and is a sad reminder of how unwell he was by then. Both appear in Catalogue 200, at £25 and £15.

The Australian tour of 1902 is one of the most famous of them all, renowned for ‘Jessop’s Match’, ‘Tate’s Match’ and more generally for the genius of Victor Trumper. Oddly the nearest thing there was to a contemporary account was a brief Australian publication, The Kangaroo in England. There was also a pre tour brochure, The Eleventh Australian Tour 1902. In The Australians in England 1902 both were reproduced together in 1993 with a two page introduction from the pen of Donald Bradman. The basic book is available in Catalogue 200 at £21. Rather more expensive at, currently, £100 is a numbered edition of 250 signed by Bradman, the first ten of which, at around double that cost, are bound in red morocco.

In 1886 a group of amateurs, led by EJ Sanders, toured North America and WC Sim produced a slim 30 page account of the trip entitled The Log of the Old ‘Un. An excellent introduction by Peter Wynne-Thomas (Awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Year Honours List 2019) to a 1994 reprint runs to seven pages. The unnumbered edition of this one is not expensive and can be ordered from Catalogue 200 at a mere £8. As for an original there was not a copy in either the Curry or Eagar sales and, somewhat to my frustration, I cannot recall what the copy that recently appeared at Knights went for, other than that it was a substantial four figure sum.

Also in 1994 John tried something new, a collaboration with a mainstream publisher to produce a limited edition of a biography of a player of the 1950s. The publisher was Andre Deutsch, the author Alan Hill and the subject Bill Edrich. A limited edition of 170 copies, was bound in half calf, presented in a slip case and with the top edge gilt was signed by Denis Compton as well as by Hill. Certainly the book seems to have appreciated in value as the copy in Catalogue 200 is £150.

The Don figures again in a new book published in 1995, The Don Meets The Babe, Ric Sissons’ account of a tour of North America undertaken by a very strong Australian team. The book is completed by reprints of two brochures issued at the time to mark the tour and the whole production is a very satisfying one. The book is available in a standard edition at £18. Alternatively there are two limited versions with a total run of 250 copies. All but the first 25 are the same as the standard edition save that they are numbered and signed by Sissons and Bradman and cost £85. The first 25 are bound in full morocco and also signed by Lady Bradman, and command a substantial premium.

In 1996, for the second and last time, John tried a collaboration with Andre Deutsch and Alan Hill, this time in respect of the latter’s biography of Peter May. This time the limited edition was of 126 copies signed by Hill and Colin Cowdrey. The first 25 were bound in full morocco rather than quarter calf, and also signed by May’s widow. There is no copy available in Catalogue 200.

1997 saw two more new books, albeit about historical subjects. The first was MCC in South Africa 1938-39 and, almost sixty years on, the first account of the visit that culminated in the notorious timeless Test. That said there was an element of republication, a brochure issued by the shipping line that took the MCC side to the Cape being reproduced at the end of the book. Once more there were three versions, a standard edition and a version of that limited to 250 copies signed by Bassano and England’s Len Wilkinson. Of those 250 the first 25 were bound in full green morocco and also signed by three of the South African team. All three are still available at £10, £18 or £250.

The second new book in 1997 was The Australians in England by Peter Sharpham, another book covering a previously unchronicled tour, the Australian visit of 1899. Sharpham’s thoroughly researched narrative is supplemented by facsimiles of two contemporary brochures. On this occasion there is just one unlimited and unsigned cloth bound version. It is still available at £21.

County cricket cropped up in 1998 with a detailed account, by Neil Jenkinson, of Hampshire’s remarkable victory over Warwickshire in 1922 after being dismissed for just 15 in their first innings. The standard edition is still available at £12 and there is also, at £35, a numbered limited edition of 200 copies, signed by Jenkinson and John Woodcock, who contributes a foreword.

The twentieth century closed with John going back to the publication of an old tour account, this time Major Philip Trevor’s With the MCC in Australia, the only account of the 1907/08 Ashes series. The original turns up from time to time, but is generally in a somewhat dilapidated state due to the poor quality paper used. An excellent reproduction comes with a new two page introduction from Wynne-Thomas. The book is unsigned and with no express limitation stated, but it has appreciated in value considerably after publication, so there cannot have been too many printed. Catalogue 200 has a copy available at £65.

In 2000, in the manner of Jenkinson’s book, John published a book by John Shawcroft about a County Championship match. The Rise and Fall of Percy Perrin deals with a match between Derbyshire and Essex in 1904 in which Perrin scored 343 not out, but still ended up on the losing side. The book is an 85 page hardback and currently costs £12, unless you want one of the numbered limited edition of 41 copies bound in half morocco, slip cased and signed by Shawcroft and the Derbyshire centenarian Jim Hutchinson, whose career overlapped with a number of the participants, in which case a purchaser is looking at ten times that price.

In 2001 another joint venture was tried, this time with Stephen Chalke’s Fairfield Books. The volume concerned is At the Heart of English Cricket, a splendid biography of Geoffrey Howard. The McKenzie edition is one of 100 bound in half calf and signed by Chalke, Howard and Scyld Berry, who provided a foreword. The book is still available, at a relatively modest £65.

Also appearing in 2001 was another joint venture, this time with the MCC. Lord Harris’s Team in Australia 1878/79 is a small 82 page book which comprises a facsimile of the diary of one of the England players, Vernon Royle, an introduction by Gerald Howat and the account of the tour and scorecards reprinted from Wisden. The book is currently £18.

In 2004 John published Brian Bassano again, on a similar subject to his previous book. Mann’s Men is an account of the 1922/23 tour by an England side led by Frank Mann. The 140 page softback was published in an unnumbered limited edition of 250 copies. Sadly Bassano had died in 2001, but his friend Rick Smith then proceeded to conclude his unfinished projects, and Mann’s Men was the first of three posthumously published titles. In Catalogue 200 it is £15.

For 2005 John went back to republishing but, on this occasion, a second edition of a relatively recent book. Rayvern Allen’s biography of Charles Aubrey Smith, Sir Aubrey, had first appeared in 1982. The second edition was considerably expanded and appeared in a paperback edition as well as a numbered hardback edition of 150 copies, signed by Rayvern Allen and Smith’s daughter. The limited edition is currently available at £25 and the standard one at £12.

A reprint of a rather different nature, also published in 2005, was The Dawn of Cricket, written by HT Waghorn and originally published in 1906. The book attempted to pull together references to the game as it was played prior to 1800. It contained a new introduction from John Goulstone, like Waghorn a man steeped in the history of the game. This one is still available, at £12.

The McKenzie book of 2006 was another to concentrate on a single match, this time a Test, Old Trafford 1956 and Jim Laker’s 19-90. The book was written by Vic Rigby and came in to two editions. There was a signed paperback or, for the fan of the limited edition, 75 numbered hardbacks signed by Rigby, Ian Craig of Australia and Peter Richardson of England. Uniquely no copy is available in Catalogue 200, rather suggesting this is a rare one.

The second posthumous Bassano/Smith book appeared in 2007, The Visit of Mr WW Read’s 1891/92 English Cricket Team to South Africa. The 178 page paperback is still available, at £15.

For 2008 John published Rayvern Allen again, and the project was With the Bookplate of AE Winder, a numbered limited edition of 175 signed hardbacks. The story was that of a well known collector, Tony Winder, whose passion in life was the acquisition of cricket books and memorabilia. Winder was a regular bidder at auction and, accordingly, often John’s competitor. Winder’s main triumph however was to buy the bulk of John Arlott’s substantial collection prior to the latter’s move to Alderney. The book consists of a listing of the collection, the acquisition costs of which in the 1970s and 1980s are enough to make a man weep. Ultimately however the story is a sad one, Winder’s business failing and its creditors forcing the sale of his beloved collection. He died within a few years. The book is currently available at £65.

The Noble Cricketers is a poem written by John Wolcot that was first published in 1778. It concerned Wolcot’s criticism of the Duke of Dorset and the Earl of Tankerville for playing too much cricket during the American war of independence. The poem was reproduced in full in 2010 together with an introduction and a commentary from Goulstone. The book itself is a nicely produced hardback in a signed and numbered limited edition of 100 copies. It is still available at £35.

The (so far) last of Brian Bassano’s posthumous books appeared in 2012. Maiden Victory is an account of South Africa’s surprising but well-earned victory in England in 1935. If it is to be the last of the author’s work to appear in book form it is appropriate that his oeuvre should be completed by a story of South African success. The book is a paperback, and was published in a numbered limited edition of 150 copies and, at least in Catalogue 200, is not currently available.

Philip Snow was a fine writer, and a brother of the novelist CP Snow and of the great authority on Leicestershire cricket Eric Snow. Philip knew Pelham Warner well and was persuaded, at 96, to write a monograph on the subject of ‘Plum’ in 2012. Reminiscences of Plum Warner, a slim 16 page booklet published in a signed and numbered limited edition of 75 is one of the very best of John’s publications. It is available from Catalogue 200 at £18.

Questions of Identity in Late Eighteenth Century Cricket is slightly larger than the Snow, weighing in at 20 pages. It is a scholarly look by Goulstone at some incorrect identifications in 18^th century matches, and is much more interesting than it sounds. Published in 2015 in an edition of 50 numbered and signed copies it is still available at £65 which may sound like a great deal of money, but Goulstone’s work is amongst the most valuable of any living author.

The next McKenzie release, in 2017, was the last writing to appear from the immensely popular West Indian writer and broadcaster Tony Cozier. Sir Everton Weekes – An Appreciation was a 50 page book that appeared in three formats. The standard paperback is currently available at £15, and on publication there was also a hardbacked limited edition of 125 numbered copies signed by Cozier and Sir Everton at £100. Numbers 1-25 were bound in half calf, but there is no copy available in Catalogue 200.

To date the last publication from JW McKenzie, at the beginning of 2019, again has a Caribbean theme. Sir Garfield Sobers: The Bayland’s Favourite Son is an essay by Sobers’ friend of more than seventy years, Professor Keith Sandiford. It is available as a standard paperback at £15 or, cloth bound and signed by author and subject in a numbered limited edition of 125 at £120. As for the future Vic Rigby’s appreciation suggests that a book about Richard Keigwin must be imminent, and it was reassuring to note his reference to with others planned. I certainly hope so, and look forward to be able to report more details in the near future.

*I will admit straight away that I could have put more effort into valuing the original publications, but the vagaries of the condition of the books and a market that is still not as buoyant as it was in the early noughties means I limited my research to the outcome of the sale of Guy Curry’s collection at Christies in 2006 and, a year before that, the same auctioneers disposal of Desmond Eagar’s cricket library. Prices quoted are the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium.

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England vs New Zealand In Print

The New Zealanders first visit to England after the grant of Test status came in 1931, and they came again in 1937. At the same time as Freddie Calthorpe’s England side toured the Caribbean in 1929/30 another England side, under the leadership of Harold Gilligan visited New Zealand and, on the only occasion this has ever happened, both played a Test series. One other visit to New Zealand took place before the war, two Tests there being tagged on to the end of the Bodyline series 1932/33. The 1932/33 series has a blog post all of its own, but of the contemporary books only Jack Hobbs’ Fight for the Ashes 1932/33 goes on to deal with the visit to New Zealand, and does so in short order. 

As to those stand alone pre-war series against New Zealand there are two books. The 1929/30 series was chronicled in The Book of the Two Maurices. The authors were the tall Surrey fast bowler Maurice Allom, and the rather more vertically challenged Glamorgan batsman Maurice Turnbull. There was  also a small book published on the New Zealanders 1931 visit, written by Orton Hintz and titled, unimaginatively, The New Zealanders in England 1931. Of 1937 there was, sadly, nothing of substance published at the time.

Post war the New Zealanders visited England in 1949. The one top class bowler in their side, Jack Cowie, was a little past his best but a talented and durable batting line up meant that the visitors, led by the patriarch of the Hadlee family, Walter, comfortably drew all four Tests. There was a splendid book published at the time, Cricket Companions by Alan Mitchell and John Arlott’s Gone With the Cricketers also looked at the series. In addition, back in New Zealand, a small booklet was published by George Wycherley. Halo for Hadlee was a humorous account of the trip. The best book of all on this series however is a retrospective one, published by our friends at The Cricket Publishing Company a couple of years ago. The Skipper’s Diary is a lasting testament to the quality of ‘the 49ers’.

Much of the strength had ebbed away from New Zealand cricket by the time of their next visit to England in 1958 and had not the weather saved them once it would have been a 5-0 win for England. The writers stayed well away, other than Arlott, who featured the series in his Cricket Journal.

The side that came to England for the first split summer in 1965 was a little stronger than the 1958 team, although they were still unable to trouble the home side. Worth reading is Dick Brittenden’s Red Leather Silver Fern, which covered the New Zealanders’ visits to India and Pakistan as well.

I could almost cut and paste the last paragraph at this point. The story was very similar in 1969 with a visit to England by the New Zealanders, who once more were visiting India and Pakistan as well. Again Brittenden wrote a book covering all three trips, Scoreboard ’69.

In 1973 New Zealand and, as in 1969, West Indies, visited England and even the fact of the latter series being Sobers’ last in England did not strike a chord with publishers. That there was no account of the New Zealand tour was less surprising, but that was a gap in the game’s history that was filled in 2013 by David Parsons’ The New Zealand Tour to England 1973, a fitting tribute to the brave performances of Bevan Congdon and his team.

At the height of the World Series Cricket controversy over the winter of 1977/78 England sent a side out to play series in Pakistan and New Zealand. The absence of a contemporary account comes as no surprise, but almost forty years on David Battersby filled the gap with In The Shadow of Packer, an excellent read.

It was a World Cup year in England in 1983, unexpectedly won by India. After that the New Zealanders stayed behind for a four Test series, their longest visit for a quarter of a century. England’s 3-1 victory was part of the subject matter of a collaboration between Patrick Eagar and Alan Ross; Kiwis and Indians.

The England and New Zealand players must have got to know each other pretty well in those months as, together with Pakistan, the Shaky Isles were one of England’s destinations the following winter. It is a trip recorded by England skipper Bob Willis in The Captain’s Diary a book that is not, in common with most bearing that title, as interesting as the title promises.

The summer of 1986 was a grim one for England as they lost series to both India and New Zealand. By definition a far from memorable season there is a record for posterity in another Eagar/Ross effort; Summer of Suspense.

England beat Australia in between, but lost to Pakistan at home in 1987 before setting off on a long winter in 1987/88 that took in Pakistan and Australia as well as New Zealand. Scyld Berry’s Cricket Odyssey is an excellent account of a difficult winter for England.

The next and, to date, last tour to New Zealand to merit a book was Out of the Rough, published in 1997 and in large part concerning England’s trip to New Zealand the previous winter. The writers were David Lloyd, Jonathan Agnew and Peter Baxter. It is a reasonable account but, frankly, the most notable thing about it is that it also counts as the only tour account ever of an England trip to Zimbabwe an occasion when, whatever dear old Bumble might have asserted to the contrary, we most certainly did not flipping murder ‘em.

There is a slight issue with New Zealand tours caused by the habit, up to and including 1974/75, of adding a trip to New Zealand to tours of Australia. There are books on all those tours, and in respect some of them several titles appeared, but not many deal with the matches in New Zealand. Padwick does not, slightly irritatingly, specify which of the books deal with the New Zealand, so I cannot claim the following list is definitive:-

1946/47:- The books by journalist Clif Cary and Bruce Harris do not deal with the single Test in New Zealand, but there is a chapter on that part of the trip in Denis Compton’s Testing Time for England.

1950/51:- Another cut and paste job in that In Sun and in Shadow by Compton deals with the two Tests in New Zealand. The books I have by ‘Lyn’ Wellings, Keith Miller, Jack Fingleton and ‘Tiger’ O’Reilly do not. I have not seen the books by John Kay, Rex Warner, ‘Jim’ Swanton or Harris.

1954/55:- Another bumper crop of books to celebrate Len Hutton’s side retaining the urn but, of New Zealand, not a word at the time in any of the books I own, despite the interest created by New Zealand’s dismissal for 26 in the second of the two Tests. None of Alan Ross, Sidney Barnes, Margaret Hughes, Swanton, Wellings or Moyes go on to New Zealand. The books I have not seen were written by Arthur Gilligan, Arlott and Ian Peebles. Of this tour however there have been two retrospective accounts, both of which do go on to New Zealand; In the Eye of the Typhoon by Frank Tyson, and Those Daring Young Men by Alan Hill.

1958/59:- Of the writers on this, for England, disappointing Ashes tour only Peebles went on to New Zealand as far as I am aware for the two Tests there. His book was The Fight for the Ashes 1958/59. Wellings and Fingleton did not cover the New Zealand Tests. Others writers who I cannot assist with are Alec Bedser, Moyes and Kay.

1962/63:- This time there were three Tests in New Zealand, not referenced by any of Richie Benaud, Ross or Swanton. There are books by John Clarke, Wellings and Moyes/Tom Goodman that I have not a chance to look at.

1965/66:- There are only two accounts and neither Clarke nor ‘Slasher’ Mackay deal with the three Tests in New Zealand.

1970/71:- Just one book this time, from ‘Dick’ Whitington, who confines himself to the Australian series.

1974/75:- Two Ashes books and two Tests in New Zealand, in the first of which Ewan Chatfield almost lost his life. Tyson wasn’t in New Zealand, but Assault on the Ashes by Christopher Martin-Jenkins does cover the Tests there.

There is also a mention here for the ubiquitous Canynge Caple, whose All Blacks at Cricket 1860-1958 looks at all the New Zealanders’ Tests up to but not including those played in 1958, and covers those played against all opponents, not just England. England versus New Zealand by Gerry Cotter, published by Crowood in 1990, is another similar title.

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Four years in the making

When Jos Buttler ran out Martin Guptill to tie the 2019 World Cup Final Super Over which saw England emerge as ODI champions for the first time, it wasn’t just a tense finish to a firecracking rollercoaster of a match or even just the end of an intense and closely fought tournament. It was the deserved closure of four years’ worth of preparation and reinvention in search of the ultimate payoff.

England’s progression from a wretched early exit at the 2015 World Cup to worthy finalists at the 2019 edition is well documented. After crashing out of the 2015 tournament at the hands of Bangladesh with their approach and skillset proving vastly unsuited to the modern game, England reinvented themselves as an ODI team. A new coach was brought in and with him a new approach: attack, attack, attack. The results were immediate and impressive. In their first ODI with head man Trevor Bayliss at the helm, England smashed their first ever 400-plus score in the format against New Zealand in a series which also saw them complete their (at the time) highest successful run-chase. A new era had not only dawned, but had well and truly been ushered in.

The next few years saw this revitalised approach bring England unprecedented levels of success in the format, not only in terms of results, but also in terms of the many records broken. There was the highest 10-wicket run chase in history (since surpassed by South Africa), achieving a world-record score against Pakistan and doing so again against Australia in 2018 as part of their first ever 5-0 series whitewash. These are just a sample of the at times stunning feats the team accomplished as they refined their blitzkrieg method and rose to the top of the ODI rankings in the leadup to the 2019 World Cup.

It was not smooth sailing all the way. The mountainous highs were punctuated by the occasional abysmal low, mostly when the flaws in England’s approach with the bat (one-dimensional for all its success) were exposed, but also when their bowling – by now their weaker suit by far – was shown to be less adept at defending a total than their batsmen were at setting one. It was these chinks in the side’s armour which led to many people question whether, for all the improvement on show, England’s new paradigm of ODI cricket might just let them down when it mattered the most.

Indeed, it had already proved to be the team’s downfall on the more modest, but still important stage of the 2017 Champions’ Trophy. Having breezed through the group stages of that tournament, England faltered in their semi-final against Pakistan. Having grown fat on a diet of flat, batting-friendly pitches, England stumbled on a trickier – but by no means unplayable – surface. They were bowled out for a disappointing 211 before their bowlers put in an underwhelming performance of their own, taking only 2 Pakistani wickets as the eventual tournament victors eased their way into the final.

England returned to their (mostly) winning ways after the conclusion of the Champions’ Trophy but their renewed successes were interspersed with a few abject failures which indicated their struggles in tougher conditions were not a thing of the past. Most notably against Australia on their 2017/18 tour there, they sunk to 8-5 before managing to stage something of a recovery. As late as early 2019, a dismal capitulation against the West Indies only intensified fans’ concerns that an inability to adapt their game would prove to be England’s undoing in the now fast-approaching World Cup. While their series of high scores in their final pre-tournament series against Pakistan were impressive they didn’t tell anyone anything they didn’t already know.

Ahead of the World Cup, England had sought to go some distance to covering their other weakness – their bowling – by calling up Barbadian-born fast bowler Jofra Archer, who became eligible to represent England after a change to their residency period rules to bring them directly in line with ICC regulations. A decent showing against Pakistan secured his spot in the World Cup squad and provided a welcome boost the England’s bowling lineup. The side then had to deal with the critics of their now-established approach to ODI batting, both in terms of conditions and whether it would stand up to the additional pressure of World Cup Cricket.

The question of conditions was thrown into sharper focus when it soon became apparent that the pitches in use during the tournament would not be the batting paradises many had expected (and indeed feared), but would invariably offer at least something for the bowlers to work with. It too became apparent that – due to pitches or pressure – chasing totals in this World Cup was significantly harder than had generally been observed in the many bilateral series played over the last few years. This was another potential stumbling-block for England as they had found most of their recent success whilst chasing.

In fact, their first loss of the tournament would turn out to be a failed chase against Pakistan. Set 349 to win, England never looked as assured as they had whilst chasing similar totals against the same team just weeks earlier. A pair of superb innings from Joe Root and Jos Buttler took their response to an impressive level of respectability, but the match left observers who had suggested that England would be unable to replicate their feats of recent times in a genuine pressure environment feeling vindicated.

England won their next few matches comfortably, with a clinical bowling performance against the West Indies giving hope that that particular weakness had been somewhat mitigated. However their other problems reared their heads when, having restricted Sri Lanka to what appeared to be an eminently gettable 232, they proceeded to falter in their chase. This was due to excellent bowling from Lasith Malinga, but more pertinently due to an enduring hole in their batting game when playing on slower pitches.

Having now lost two matches they had been widely expected to win, England were now faced with the tough task of needing to win two of their next three matches to guarantee a semi-final spot. Their opponents – Australia, India, New Zealand – were likely semi-finalists so England with pressure mounting would have to perform against their toughest opponents of the tournament.

When they fell comfortably short of chasing a target of 286 against Australia, justifiable questions over whether, for all their evident improvement, England indeed had what it took to emerge victorious on the biggest stage resurfaced in abundance.. There was an increasing feeling that their limitations had been exposed or that they had simply bottled it. Whilst a team-best World Cup total against Bangladesh and a record-breaking innings from Eoin Morgan against Afghanistan had at least proved that England’s best qualities could translate to a major tournament, they served only to reinforce the impression of a team that had focussed on its eye-catching strengths to the detriment of potentially fatal weaknesses. Whatever the reason for their situation, England’s last two games of the round-robin stage of the tournament were effectively knockout affairs and they were under severe pressure to perform

Memorable cricketing performances, whether by a team or an individual, rarely come without a slice of fortune. This England team’s lucky break came with the chance to bat first on a surface which proved to be far more conducive to run-scoring than those on which they had just lost two consecutive matches. A much-improved score of 337, kickstarted by a maiden World Cup century from Jonny Bairstow and a pair of excellent opening spells from Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer set them up for a convincing win. The confidence gained from this turnaround evidently carried into England’s final match of the round robin stage where Bairstow’s second century in as many games took his team to 305/8. They followed up by bowling New Zealand out for 186 which whilst admittedly assisted by a pair of run-outs – one avoidable and one extremely unlucky – demonstrated that this now-resurgent England team did indeed have all the tools at their disposal to lift the coveted trophy.

England don’t lose at Edgbaston. Australia don’t lose in knockout matches. These two facts clashed head-to-head as the two sides in question met in the second semi-final, with the first having seen New Zealand eliminate India in a thriller. When Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat, it appeared that England’s newly-found frailty whilst chasing would be put to the test but a match-defining opening spell saw Australia reduced to 14-3. A century stand between the ever-dependable Steve Smith and Alex Carey, arguably Australia’s find of the tournament, threatened to defy England until the host nation’s previous weak bowling link in the tournament to date, Adil Rashid, struck to put Australia on the back foot, with only some lower-order resistance from Mitchell Starc allowing them to scrape to 223.

Even at this stage, the natural pessimist that lives within most fans of English sport was not daring to hope that this chase was as simple as it looked on paper. They needn’t have worried. For the first time since their very similar chase against the West Indies earlier in the tournament, England looked totally at ease as they batted their way effortlessly to the total and with it, for the first time in 27 years, the World Cup final.

By getting this far England had answered most of the questions regarding their abilities and resilience – and silenced most of their doubters – and relegated their ignominious performance at the previous World Cup to a distant memory. But, for all this, there was general feeling that unless this tournament ended with England lifting the trophy, it would all have been in vain – particularly as the vast improvement enjoyed by the One-Day team was considered by many to have come at the expense of consistency in the Test arena. Moreover, with coach Trevor Bayliss’ post-summer departure having been announced some time in advance, it was clear that all levels of English cricket saw this tournament as their one chance. It was now or never and no-one, least of all the England team, would settle for second best.

What transpired on July 14th need not be recounted here as it is already imprinted – probably forever – into the memories of all who saw its dramatic twists and turns unfold into what many believe the greatest ever One-Day International. A close contest throughout became a wild rollercoaster as it twisted and turned again and again towards its conclusion. It was not without its share of controversy as England overcame their weakness in chasing on a tricky though not impossible pitch which led to a tie before the finale of a tense Super Over saw them emerge victorious on boundary countback to claim their inaugural World Cup trophy. That a freak stroke of luck (and, it would transpire, an incorrect application of the rules) had saved England from falling agonisingly short and the contrived methodology by which they were awarded the trophy didn’t matter to them. The past four years of tumultuous years of highs, lows, rebirth and banishing the demons of their past had not been in vain. Victory was theirs.

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Pakistan’s Performance in the 2019 World Cup

Pakistan is one of the teams participating in the 12^th edition of the ICC world cup 2019. The 7 week long tournament brought 10 teams with each participating in the group stages. It must be noted that the cricket world cup was introduced in 1975 and Pakistan won the world cup in 1992. In this 12^th edition however, they came into the World Cup as an unpredictable big team that opponents need to be wary of.

Betting involved and best casinos

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Pakistan’s dismal performance at the 2019 ICC world cup

The team’s performance in the tournament so far hasn’t been that impressive although it has been a mix of wins and losses. Unfortunately, the losses have been many and this has prompted the Pakistan Cricket Board to announce their planned review and analysis of the performance of the national team including the support staff as well as the head coach Mickey Arthur. However this will be done only after the end of the tournament. The review and analysis will take stock of the team’s performance and the matches it has played in the past three years preceding the world cup which haven’t been good either.

For Pakistan though it is not a new thing to witness a wave of reviews and sackings at every world cup failure with a promise of a different approach up until the team wins again and then all is forgotten! Pakistan has again failed to make it to the semi-finals and it is clear that they have been bundled out of the tourney. Even though Pakistan managed to win their last four straight matches and even finished on level 11 points with New Zealand, but they were still not able to qualify for the semis because of the inferior net run.

Their first match against West Indies was the biggest shock for them as they were bowled out for a paltry 105 as West Indies won in just 13.4 overs. Against the backdrop of their poor run since the start of the tourney, they managed to come from behind to win against South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh thus going fifth in the 10-team table.

The results so far are not good news for the team as England dashed their hopes of reaching the semi-finals after beating New Zealand. Pakistan is one team that has been a regular entrant of the tournament’s semi-finals and failing to secure a place at last four will not be good news to them. Already fans and lovers of the game at home have raised their dissatisfaction of the team’s dismal performance. Calls have been made for the overhaul of the team so they could return to their winning ways of the past.

What can be expected of the Pakistan Cricket Team in the Future?

Well, the Pakistan cricket team is good that is a mix of youngsters, well-established and experienced players who have been in the team long enough. Now that the team is out of the tournament those concerned with the running of the team should focus on improving the areas that the team had weaknesses in. If all the underlying issues are well resolved then we should expect a formidable Pakistani team in the future. This time they just experienced not their worst performance, but sure not a good one. They sure will rise up and perform well going forward.

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‘Sugar Ray’ – Australia’s Finest?

When I first started reading cricket books there seemed to be one big difference between the English and Australian writers. For some reason the latter all seemed to be former players, whereas generally the former were not. Monty Noble, Jack Fingleton and Tiger O’Reilly of the old school were Test veterans, as were Richie Benaud, Keith Miller and Ashley Mallett of more recent vintage. I also knew that AG ‘Johnny’ Moyes and RS ‘Dick’ Whittington had each played plenty of First Class cricket, so I’ve always considered it understandable that for many years I laboured under the misapprehension that the Ray Robinson whose Between Wickets was one of the first books I really enjoyed, was the Ray Robinson who had appeared in one Ashes Test against Gubby Allen’s 1936/37 England tourists.

In fact he wasn’t, and there is no reference that I am aware of as to what level of cricket Robinson played and for how long, nor indeed whether he played the game at all. That said the fact that O’Reilly, who first met Robinson in 1932 when the latter was 26, was immediately impressed by Robinson’s understanding and knowledge of the techniques of the game, suggests that at some point he must have been a decent player. He was certainly never a First Class cricketer however, and as soon as he left school went straight into employment with the Melbourne Sun-Herald Group.

When he was introduced to O’Reilly Robinson had yet to become a cricket writer, and at that time simply reported on whatever his employer asked him to. His involvement in the game began when he started sub-editing the cricket reports during the Bodyline series of 1932/33. He was doing that job when the word ‘bodyline’ began to be used. The first use of the expression was by journalist Jack Worrall, who wrote of half pitched slingers on the body line. Joining the two words and using the result as a noun or adjective was something that Robinson wasn’t permitted to do when first he wanted to. As matters stand therefore the credit for the actual first use of the word goes to a staff writer at the Melbourne Herald, Hugh Buggy, and not to Robinson.

His efforts on the 1932/33 tour earned Robinson the opportunity to travel to England for the return series in 1934, and it is from then on that his writing started to appear regularly in newspapers and magazines both in England and Australia. Few books on the game, Ashes accounts apart, were published in Australia at this time and despite Robinson’s reputation growing with all that he wrote it was to be 1946 before the first of his seven books appeared.

During the war, whilst Neville Cardus was in Australia, a lasting friendship developed between him and Robinson. It is clear that to some extent Robinson was influenced by Cardus, but then all writers who followed Cardus were. In terms of style a better comparison might however be the lighter touch of ‘Crusoe’ Robertson-Glasgow. An example is Robinson’s view on Cardus, a turn of phrase that might have come from the pen of Crusoe himself; Cardus did for cricket reporting what Parker did for pens, and Heinz did for beans.

Cardus was in many ways responsible for Robinson’s first book, Between Wickets, getting published at all. Robinson sent the finished manuscript to Cardus who, deeply impressed by what he read, sent it to William Collins, the UK publisher, with his recommendation. The book duly appeared and, after Robinson had spent the summer of 1948 in England with Bradman’s ‘Invincibles’, a new and expanded edition appeared.

Between Wickets is a book of essays on the cricket and cricketers that Robinson had seen. Bradman inevitably looms large, but there are many other points of reference. A personal favourite is a chapter on the subject of Stan McCabe, the batsman above all others who clearly caught Robinson’s imagination; the sight of the ball leaving the bowler’s hand set him thinking of a stroke, not of keeping it out of his stumps. He could not play a cheap shot, even to save his wicket. He was beyond the ordinary measures of scoring, consistency and safety. Generally McCabe eschewed easy runs, but is remembered for three of the great Test match innings. Robinson went on; his big innings were masterpieces, not adapted to mass production, and were produced in response to his side’s pressing need.

The famous Bodyline controversy raised it’s head in Between Wickets as well. In some ways it is a little odd that the account published at the same time by Jack Fingleton, Cricket Crisis, is still regarded as one of the best accounts of the series. Robinson’s views are equally perceptive and just as measured yet seem rarely to be referred to. One comment in particular has always struck me as a telling one; long before he was warmly applauded for his innings of 98 in the final Test, Larwood had needed no recorder of sound waves to discover that the angry billows of noise from the crowd were directed not at him personally but at the methods used.

After Between Wickets two more similar collections of essays followed in 1951 and 1955. From the Boundary was first, followed by The Glad Season in 1955 (the title in Australia was Green Sprigs). After that Robinson published only one more book before retiring from journalism, and that one wasn’t a cricket book. The Wit of Robert Menzies was published in 1966. It is slightly odd, given the popularity of the genre at the time, that despite accompanying all of Australia’s major touring parties up to and including the 1961 Ashes series Robinson never wrote a tour account, nor even gathered together in book form his reports from one of the series he followed.

Robinson retired in 1970, and after that he published two more cricket books. The first, in 1972, was The Wildest Tests, the stories of matches characterised by trouble, either on or off the pitch. Finally in 1975 he produced his magnum opus, On Top Down Under, a collection of essays on each of Australia’s Test captains, a book he had been working on for a number of years.

The absence of the sort of volume of output that comprises many cricket writers’ oeuvres would seem to be explained simply by the fact that Robinson seems to have been able to earn a decent living from writing. In a booklet published 14 years after his death, in 1996, fellow writer Phillip Derriman recounts a story of Robinson telling him that he had made enough money from Between Wickets to buy a house. Derriman adds the somewhat wistful observation that at the time his piece was published a cricket author would do well to make enough from a book just to paint a house!

For a number years prior to his leaving the press box Robinson’s health had been somewhat fragile, but he did enjoy a twelve year retirement before departing this mortal coil after an unfortunate accident at his home in 1982. In a little over six months Australian cricket writing had lost both Robinson and Fingleton. Former Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson’s tribute to Robinson was as meaningful as any; we nicknamed him “Sugar” Ray Robinson after the best fighter in the world because we reckoned he was the best cricket writer in the world pound for pound. His books were masterpieces, the research incredible. He was not just a writer, he was a friend of cricket.

A key word from that Davidson quote is ‘friend’. No one seems to have a bad word to say about Robinson and indeed he was, unusually for a journalist, universally popular amongst the players. The Cricketer’s obituarist made the observation that Robinson was accepted in the Australian dressing room as if he were the twelfth man, and no doubt the insights he gained as a result are part of what set his writing apart. When Ronald Cardwell, a great admirer of Robinson, decided a few years ago to start publishing a journal of Australian cricket I suspect there would never have been any doubts as to the title it would bear, and through Between Wickets a modern cricket tragic is regularly reminded of the book that remains one of the very best on the subject of Australian cricket.

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Cricket World Cup 2019: Who will be The Winner?

The ICC cricket world cup that started on May 30 will be officially ending in July 14^th 2019, and this will mark the end of the 12^th edition of the competition since its inauguration way back in 1975. The 2019 tournament is being hosted by England and it is now clear that England and New Zealand will be the two teams that will be battling it out in the finals. England are 3 time finalist and New Zealand played their first final in 2015. Both are yet to lift the trophy. The question lingering on most people’s lips is – who is it going to be? Is it going to be England or New Zealand? One thing is for sure, that we will have a new Cricket World Champion after 23 years (Sri Lanka became champions in 1996).

This match is scheduled to be played on the 14^th of July 2019. It is going to be the 12^th edition of the ICC world cup final, one that has witnessed the culmination of 45 group stage matches and 2 semi-finals that have been played over a period of 7 weeks.

Since the change of the format of the tournament in 2015, all the ten teams that have been participating at the tournament have since had to face each other and for this reason, there isn’t any escape for anyone! This has really helped to add to the excitement and drama that characterize the Cricket World Cup. Indeed the 2019 cricket tourney heralded the most unpredictable tournament, as there were several evenly matched teams that participated.

What are the latest odds of the winner?

For punters who love to place their bets on a big tournament such as the Cricket World Cup 2019, taking an interest on a top contending team like England is just great. Going by their good run at the tournament so far, England stand a big chance to beat New Zealand to lift the cup. A look at the odds offered by the various online bookmakers also shows that England is more likely to win the match (England – 1/3 New Zealand – 13/5). You can perform an online search for the full list of the latest free bet offers of the big match to find out more. Betfair and Paddy Power both offers 3/10 on England win and 5/2 on New Zealand win where as BetHard suggest 5/18 for England win. Bet365 has 1.30 odds for England and 3.75 for New Zealand.

So who will be the possible Cricket World Cup 2019 winner?

England is going into the match with their heads held up and also as favorites to win the cup for obvious reasons. It is the fourth time they are in the final while New Zealand is in the finals for the second time. England managed to beat New Zealand in the group stages quite easily and it is very much possible for them to beat them again in the final. We are also talking about a team that is playing with the home ground advantage, a feat they seem to really taking advantage of, going by their impressive run so far.

Even though England are perceived as the potential and likely winners of the much anticipated final coming on the Sunday 14^th July, there is a possibility that New Zealand could still pull a surprise package for the host team. In these games you never know for sure who the actual winner will be until it is over and done! And England has tendency to choke in Finals (3 World Cup finals, 2 ICC Champions Trophy finals, 1 World T20 final). However, going by keen match analysis so far since the start of the seven week long tournament that brought together a total of ten teams, England has shown an exceptional performance that has earned them the title of ‘favorites’ to win.

Currently England is currently No. 1 ODI team. Since their early exit in 2015 edition, they have adapted a more aggressive style of playing under the leadership of Coach Trevor Bayliss and stewardship of Captain Eoin Morgan. These impressive statistics give them an upper hand as they head into Sunday’s game.

So where exactly is the venue of the final game?

The game is scheduled to begin at 10.30 am British Summer Time at home the cricket, Lord’s in London. This is the same venue that the inaugural Cricket World Cup of 1975 was held. It’s also the same place that hosted the world cup finals of 1979, 1983 and 1999. We hope for an exciting match and may the best team wins!

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Charlie Davis – Trinidad and West Indies

After how many Test matches can an average be treated as a true measure of a batsman’s worth? Most seem agreed that in order to be considered a good Test batsman a man has to average at least forty, and that the mark of a great is a figure north of fifty. Are fifteen matches enough? If so then the fact that Trinidadian Charlie Davis is all but forgotten is, to say the least, unfair. Between 1968 and 1973 Davis played three Tests against Australia, three against England, four against India and five against New Zealand. He ended up with 1,301 runs at an average of 54.20. Of those who have batted more than twenty times in Tests, and excluding those currently plying their trade, only seventeen men in the history of the game have finished with a higher mark.

Davis was born in Trinidad on New Year’s Day in 1944. There was no family history of cricketing prowess, but Davis’ mother played hockey for Trinidad, and he was not the only one of her five children to play cricket for Trinidad and West Indies. Elder brother Bryan was an opening batsman who played four times in the Caribbean against Australia in 1964/65 recording three half centuries, but not passing 68. He was talked about from time to time after that but, perhaps surprisingly in view of the fact that it was not until the early 1970s that West Indies had a settled opening pair, was never selected again.

As a 17 year old Davis recorded his first century in just his second First Class appearance, for North Trinidad against South Trinidad. Six months later he got his second against British Guiana, a particularly impressive performance bearing in mind he came in at 15-4, and after his side slipped to 81-7 he shepherded the tail up to 257. The innings neither avoided the follow on nor, ultimately, defeat, but it showed Davis had the temperament to deal with pressure situations.

With India touring the Caribbean in 1961/62 and after that spectacular start Davis might have been capped soon after his eighteenth birthday. He was named in a ‘squad’ of 23 for the Test series although in the event no place opened up for him. At this point Davis might have been lost to West Indies cricket completely as his early impact had been noted more than 4,000 miles away in Gloucestershire. The county offered terms to both Davis brothers, but professional cricket in England, which would have involved giving up any hope of a Test cap and a long wait for a residential qualification appealed to neither. At the other end of his career, once the counties were able to specially register overseas players, Bryan did spend a couple of successful summers with Glamorgan, but it was never a way of life that his younger brother considered.

By the time England, under Colin Cowdrey, arrived in the Caribbean in the New Year of 1968 Davis was on the verge of Test selection. He played against the tourists in their first big game of the tour, for a Board President’s XI, and scored an unbeaten 158. In his account of the tour Brian Close wrote that he played with such confidence and freedom that his century looked inevitable. Davis lined up against Cowdrey’s men again in their next match, on his home ground in Port of Spain. He scored 68 and 62.

The selectors must have thought long and hard about including Davis in the side for the first Test, also to be played in Trinidad, but in the end could not find a place for him. Davis and his fellow Trinidadians must have been disappointed, but the only place he might have taken was that of Clive Lloyd, who had had an excellent first series against India the year before. In the circumstances the decision to omit Davis was a reasonable one and despite the series eventually going England’s way after that remarkably generous declaration by Garry Sobers in the fourth Test West Indies’ problem that series was their bowling, rather than their batting, and no middle order vacancies appeared.

In 1968/69 West Indies, for the first time since the historic 1960/61 series, visited Australia. His deeds against MCC remembered Davis was in the party, although he was still unable to force his way into the side for the first Test, won by West Indies thanks in large part to a fine century by Lloyd. The centurion went on to damage a forearm in the field however, and was consequently unfit for the second Test. Davis, described as off colour, also had fitness problems but did make his debut, albeit not in place of Lloyd but, having just taken seven wickets in a state match with his occasional right arm medium pace, instead of all-rounder David Holford, who despite taking a couple of wickets had failed twice with the bat in the first Test.

West Indies batted poorly at the MCG and were 170-6 when, batting at eight, Davis joined Roy Fredericks. Seven runs later Fredericks was gone as well, to be immediately followed by Jackie Hendriks, and although Davis batted well he was bowled for 18 by Graham McKenzie with the new ball, looking for opportunities to farm the strike. The use of a nightwatchman in the second innings brought Davis in at nine, and it was a repeat performance. He looked comfortable enough but went for 10. Australia won by an innings. In the Australian innings Davis did have the pleasure of taking the first of his two Test wickets, Bill Lawry, but ‘The Phantom’ was 205 at the time.

For the third Test of the series Lloyd was back and, his replacement Fredericks having been one of the few to emerge from the MCG with any credit, it was Davis who made way. With just a single half century and an average of 16 for the tour as a whole Davis did not get another chance as Australia won two and drew one of the remaining three Tests.

For some reason Davis did however find that niche in Australia with the ball. All told he took 21 wickets at 30.66 to finish top of the tour averages with his right arm medium pace. It was a false dawn, but a useful one for Davis as it persuaded the selectors to take him to England for their visit here in the first half of the 1969 summer, as an all-rounder.

Perhaps surprisingly England, a happy hunting ground for gentle medium pacers, saw Davis reverse his Australian experience. His seven wickets on the tour cost almost seventy runs each, and in the averages he was last of thirteen. Fortunately for him however he made some progress with the bat in a three Test series that the visitors lost 2-0. The paying public, who had watched Sobers lead his 1966 side to a stunning victory saw just five of that party returning, a less than fully fit Sobers and Caribbean cricket in disappointing decline.

The first Test, at Old Trafford, was won by England by ten wickets, helped in part by some slack fielding with Davis bearing his share of the blame. With the bat he top scored with 34 in the first innings and then added 24 in the second. The Sage of Longparish, John Woodcock, described him in The Cricketer as batting splendidly, but not for long enough.

The Lord’s Test was by far the best of the three, the game ending with England 37 runs short of victory with three wickets to fall. In the West Indies first innings Davis had put on exactly with 50 with his captain when, in a misunderstanding that certainly appeared to be Davis’ fault, Sobers found himself in no man’s land to give Geoffrey Boycott an easy run out. Davis decided the only way to avoid the wrath of his teammates was to stay in the middle for as long as possible, and he did so for over six hours. In that time he scored 103 and was in defensive mode throughout. Close would certainly not have applied the same description to this incarnation of Davis as he had to that of the previous year.

After his intense feat of concentration in the first innings Davis was out for a duck, for the only time in his Test career, in the second. The third Test was, on a personal level, much the same as the first for Davis as he scored 18 and 29, but the English margin of victory was rather different, just thirty runs, so another half hour from Davis after one or other of those starts and the series might easily have been shared.

By the time West Indies were next in Test action, against India at home in early 1971, Davis was out of favour once again and missed the first Test of what became a historic series the Indians, courtesy of four draws and a victory in the second Test, winning a series overseas for the first time. The first Test was drawn, and there was much controversy over the claims for batting places of Jamaicans Lawrence Rowe and Maurice Foster being ignored. Contemporary reports express no such concerns over Davis’ omission.

The Indian spin attack having shocked the West Indians by making them follow on in the first Test the selectors thought long and hard about the batting for the second and Davis, who had made exactly 100 in Trinidad’s game against the tourists, and in doing so made Venkat look rather less troublesome than he had appeared the first Test, was eventually given the nod to replace the injured ‘Joey’ Carew, his fellow countryman.

Sobers won the toss and chose to bat. By the end of the first day Bishan Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna, with a bit of help from Syed Abid Ali and Venkat, had bowled their hosts out for just 214. The one batsman to impress was Davis, unbeaten on 71 at the end. In the second innings he was promoted from five to first drop, and was unbeaten on 33 at the end of the third day as, on 150-1, West Indies had just managed to wipe out their first innings deficit. There was a freak accident on the fourth morning as a ball came through a net and hit Davis, necessitating a quick trip to hospital and seven stitches in a cut under the eye. Sadly a collapse followed, but not through any fault of Davis who was once more unbeaten at the fall of the last wicket, this time on 74.

For the third Test the teams moved on to Guyana and another draw. For Davis there were innings of 34 and 125*, but there was little in the pitch for the bowlers and the Indians easily batted out time. Moving on to Barbados for the fourth Test there was a similar result with Davis, as he had in Guyana, having the pleasure of the best seat in the house during a vintage Sobers century. The pair had added 170 at Bourda and this time it was a stand of 167. In the match Davis added innings of 79 and 22* to his tally.

The fifth and final Test saw the West Indies pressing hard for victory back at Port of Spain and a third major partnership (177 this time) between Sobers and Davis. The Indians were held to 326 in first innings before, thanks to 105 from Davis, the West Indians took a lead of 166. They were eventually left to chase 262 for victory. They gave it their best shot but, in the end, it was the Indians pressing, 96 runs on, for the last two West Indian wickets. Davis, coming in at eight, scored 19. He was left with a series average of 132.75, which he might reasonably have expected to be the best on either side. This was not, however, a normal series, a 21 year old Sunil Gavaskar averaging the small matter of 154.80.

A year later the New Zealanders visited the Caribbean for the first time, and there were five Tests scheduled. Neither side was very strong in bowling, so it was perhaps not so surprising that none of the Tests managed to produce a positive result. The first match, in Jamaica, saw local hero Lawrence Rowe make his famous double hundred on debut, 214, followed by 100 not out in the second innings. Davis scored 31 and 41. The West Indians always held the upper hand, but a double century from Glenn Turner and a century from future captain Geoff Howarth saw New Zealand to a draw without too many alarms.

The two teams moved on to Port of Spain for the second Test and this time it was New Zealand’s turn to hold a slight initiative throughout. Bev Congdon scored a big hundred for the visitors and for the West Indies Davis’ 90 and 29 were both important innings.

The third Test had a sensational start as, winning the toss and choosing to bat, the home side were reduced to 12-4 with Davis out for just a single. There was a slight recovery but 133 all out looked hopelessly inadequate as Congdon and Brian Hastings both scored centuries to take a lead of 289. West Indies did rather better second time round but when their fifth wicket fell at 171 defeat looked inevitable. At that point however the Sobers/Davis double act reprised its performances of the previous summer and added 254. After Sobers went for 142 Davis went on and on to a ten hour 183, and by the time he was eventually run out with his side on 544 the spectre of defeat was long gone.

The fourth Test in Guyana was spoiled in part by the weather, and in part by a nine hour opening partnership of 387 between Turner and Terry Jarvis in New Zealand’s first innings. The match petered out into a tame draw, Davis’ one visit to the crease bringing him a modest 28. The fifth Test the home side should have won, but in a relatively low scoring game, time again being lost to rain, the New Zealanders still had three wickets standing at the end after Ken Wadsworth and Bruce Taylor batted out the final hour and three quarters. For Davis there had been innings of 40 and 23, once more illustrating that he rarely failed, but had a habit of getting out after doing the hard work. His series figures were inevitably not as impressive as the year before, but he still had an average of 58.25.

At the end of the New Zealand series Davis was 28, and might have played Test cricket to the end of the decade, but as it was there were to be just two more Test matches. A lack of success heightened the tensions that always existed in West Indies cricket and there were real problems when the Australians arrived in 1972/73, the most serious of which was that Garry Sobers didn’t play. For the first three Tests Davis did not play either, much to the annoyance of Trinidadians. Davis himself was hugely disappointed, after all his recent success, to not even make the initial selection of 23 names.

At the start of the series the home side, now led by Kanhai, played pretty well but, having eventually selected Davis for the fourth Test after a narrow defeat there was a horrible batting collapse in the West Indies’ second innings, and defeat by ten wickets. Davis made five in the first knock and, in the second innings debacle of 109 all out he scored 16. In the final Test Davis scored 25 and 24 to help his side avoid defeat.

In 1973 West Indies toured England, with a series in the Caribbean due to take place the following year. By then however Davis had all but retired. He was said to be unavailable for the tour for business reasons, although the reality was rather more prosaic. The simple fact was that playing cricket for West Indies in those days paid next to nothing, and Davis needed a regular income, so he stayed behind.

At the time Davis was employed by the West Indian Tobacco Company. At the end of the New Zealand series he had been told that the company had it in mind to promote him to Sales Manager. There were strings attached however, as whilst the company did not mind Davis the District Sales Representative taking off as much time as he wanted to play international cricket, they could not be so indulgent with a Sales Manager.

Davis was given as much time as he wanted to mull the decision over, but when his name was not on that list of 23 he felt it was time to concentrate on his business career. He informed the company that he would not be touring again, and in return they agreed that if selected he would be able to play in home Tests although in the event he decided, after those two disappointing matches at the end of the series, to retire completely from international cricket.

As things turned out Davis did not stay with the West Indian Tobacco Company for too long, choosing to move into advertising with a company in which he eventually rose to become a director, but then health problems hit Davis hard.

First of all he suffered a freak injury in a football match in 1979. An eye was damaged by a goalkeeper’s finger and, despite treatment in the US and UK as well as at home in Trinidad, he lost the sight in that eye. Then in 1983 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The cost of all his medical treatment took away the assets he had built up in his successful years in business.

Despite his sight problems Davis certainly could still spot a talented young cricketer and in the early 1980s insisted that his old friend Sobers take a look at a young man for whom Davis foresaw a great future, notwithstanding that the youngster was so small he could barely hit the ball off the square – there was certainly nothing wrong with Davis’ judgment of a player – the young man in question was Brian Lara.

Sadly the Davis marriage ended in divorce a few years after his MS diagnosis and for some time now he has been unable to live independently. Nonetheless he has astonished his medical advisers with his resilience. By all accounts he should be in a wheelchair, but he isn’t, and with the aid of a stick still manages to get himself out to a mall in Port of Spain for lunch with old friends two or three times a week. These days he can only manage a couple of hours at a time, but there is no self-pity, and his sense of humour is still intact, even if his wits are not as sharp as they once were.

Davis has two children, both of whom left Trinidad to go to University in the USA and did not return. Nonetheless Davis is still close to his 48 year old daughter and her family who live in New Orleans, and his 45 year old son who lives with his family in Tampa. All of them reunited in Trinidad five years ago for a seventieth birthday party for Davis, and despite his difficulties he still travels to the US as often as he can and is well looked after by the airlines who fly him there. The last 36 years have not been easy for Charlie Davis, but his stoicism in the face of adversity is perhaps exactly what is to be expected given the way he played his cricket.

Note – I began writing this feature several months ago. Davis’ cricket career is well chronicled but finding out anything of substance about his life outside the game proved difficult. In the end I was able to contact Bryan Davis, who was kind enough to fill in the gaps. I am most grateful to him.

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England v West Indies In Print

The first Test series between England and the West Indies was played in 1928 when a team led by Karl Nunes came to England to play three Tests. They returned and did the same again in 1933 and 1939. During the period England twice visited the Caribbean, in 1929/30 and 1934/35. No account of any of those tours was published at the time, although they are referred to at some length in some more general historical or biographical books. England won their home series easily enough, but sides shorn of the very best England players struggled in the Caribbean. The 1929/30 series was shared, and five years later West Indies won a Test series for the first time.

Eventually the 75th anniversary of that 1928 tour saw the release of a book, A Nation Imagined, written by the Bajan academic Hilary Beckles. News hot of the press is that a book on the 1933 and 1934/35 tours entitled A War to the Knife is about to be self-published by Richard Bentley.

In 1947/48 England visited the Caribbean. For the third time MCC seriously misjudged the strength of the West Indians in home conditions but even a late call to Len Hutton to reinforce an understrength side could not prevent a West Indian victory. There is one account of the tour, written by Roland Garrett and published in the Caribbean. Copies are seldom seen.

In 1950 England once again under-estimated the talent of a West Indian team, although as they were at home and at full strength themselves there were no excuses. The visitors won a famous 3-1 victory that was celebrated in great style by the Windrush generation. Calypsos were recorded and released, but just one book, John Arlott’s Days at the Cricket, appeared at the time. Fifty years later in 2000 Vijay Kumar published Cricket Lovely Cricket, a beautifully produced book with a limited edition signed by each of the six survivors of the trip. It was a fitting tribute to Kumar’s countrymen of fifty years previously, even if the author did rather blot his copybook later when he was jailed for the theft of cricket books and memorabilia.

England’s 1953/54 trip to West Indies was certainly the most controversial tour since ‘Bodyline’ and the 2-2 draw was the subject of full length books from English journalists, Alex Bannister and EW ‘Jim’ Swanton. Both are worth reading but the book I am really looking forward to is a retrospective account that I am assured is to be one of Fairfield Books’ final offerings.

The West Indies side that toured England in 1957 was full of great players, the problem was that without exception all were either at the end of their careers, or had barely set out on them. England won the series comfortably and only the veteran writer Bruce Harris, whose first cricket book had been written about the ‘Bodyline’ tour, went into print; West Indies Cricket Challenge is the title.

In 1959/60 England finally managed to win a series in the Caribbean, thirty years after their first attempt. There were two books on the tour, both published in England. Swanton’s is a decent account but the better by a distance is Through the Caribbean by Alan Ross, one of the very best of tour accounts.

At this stage the number of tour books appearing was on the wane, but the genre still had some life in it and the visit of Frank Worrell’s West Indians in 1963 inspired four books. Full accounts of the trip were published by John Clarke, Ian Wooldridge and John Barker, but once again the best book was by Alan Ross, The West Indies at Lord’s, even it it was concerned only with the nail biting draw in the second Test.

The 1966 West Indians, led this time by Garry Sobers, won a superb series in the summer the England soccer team won the World Cup. Neither of the two accounts of the series, Everything That’s Cricket by John Clarke and King Cricket by Sobers himself do justice to the quality of the cricket played.

In 1967/68 England visited the Caribbean again, a series they won thanks to an infamous declaration by Sobers in the fourth Test. The man who should have captained the England side, Brian Close, spent the tour in the press box and wrote a book on the tour. Again Barker was responsible for a tour account and, a year or so later the series was one of three covered in Henry Blofeld’s Cricket in Three Moods. Close’s contribution is probably the best, but none are classics of the genre. Also covered in Blofeld’s book was the West Indies short three Test visit to England in 1969.

Sobers’ swansong was in the Caribbean in 1973/74 and the visit of Mike Denness’s England side. There were two books this time, firstly a traditional tour account, Testing Time, from Christopher Martin-Jenkins, and also a rather more eccentric publication from Michael Gibbes that was published in Trinidad with the same title.  CMJ’s account is an excellent one, and Gibbes’ book is certainly worth buying if a copy becomes available.

The first incarnation of the West Indies side that would dominate world cricket for two decades came to England in 1976. The series played out in that long hot summer changed the tone of the game forever, yet the only contemporary account was a scorebook from BBC scorer Bill Frindall. It would be 30 years before David Tossell published Grovel, one of the best, if not the best retrospective story of a cricket tour ever written.

England did not visit West Indies between 1976 and 1980 when, the home side led for the first time by Ian Botham, the men in the maroon caps returned to England. Botham’s team avoided defeat in three of the Tests, so actually did pretty well. There was no tour book however, although three did appear covering the return visit in 1980/81, a trip overshadowed by the tragic death of Kenny Barrington. The authors in question were Peter Smith and Geoffrey Boycott with two workmanlike accounts, and a rather more enjoyable book from the always readable Frank Keating; Another Bloody Day in Paradise.

For some reason publishers decided to give the 1984 West Indies series, the first of the back to back ‘blackwashes’ a miss. It was a grim series for England supporters, but if ever a series cried out for a retrospective account then surely it is this one. Perhaps one day we will see it.

The second ‘blackwash’ came in 1985/86, immediately after the Ashes were regained. The only book written on the trip was a very good one by the writer wife of England left arm spinner Phil, Frances Edmonds. Another Bloody Tour is well worth reading and, not unexpectedly, quite unlike other tour books.

Another 5-0 thrashing was avoided in 1988, but after a decent start in the drawn first Test England, with their captain constantly changing, quickly subsided to a 4-0 defeat by losing the remaining Tests without putting up too much of a fight. West Indian Summer looked at the series through the eyes of Alan Ross and the lens of Patrick Eagar, and in 2015 Neil Robinson, the man with the wonderful job of being the MCC librarian, published a retrospective account, Long Shot Summer.

England locked horns with the West Indies again in 1989/90 in the Caribbean. Remarkably they won the first Test and might have won the third. The fourth and fifth Tests were lost and with them the series but the interest stirred by that victory led to the release of three books. Richard Evans’ The Ultimate Test is probably the best, but Graham Gooch (Test of Fire) and David Gower (On the Rack) also gave their names to books.

England could not beat the West Indians in 1991, but at Headingley Gooch played the innings that the compilers of Masterly Batting assessed as the finest Test innings of them all. In the end the series was tied at 2-2. There were two books on the series. The first was A Tale of Two Captains, a very nicely produced limited edition from Boundary Books written by Bill Frindall. The other was from Jack Bannister; Jack in the Box.

And that, I am afraid, is that as far as West Indies are concerned, other than to mention Phil Tufnell’s Postcards from the Beach on the subject of the 1997/98 series and, for completeness, a reference to Samuel Canynge Caple’s England v The West Indies 1895-1957, completed prior to the 1957 series, and thus dealing with the contests up to an including that of 1953/54.

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Goodbye to Tres

In early May 1993 Marcus Trescothick made his First Class debut for Somerset. He was just 17 and was selected to open the batting with the prodigiously talented Mark Lathwell, a relative veteran at 21. Later that summer Lathwell would play in two Ashes Tests, but he never fulfilled his early promise and left the game before he turned 30.

Back in May 1993 there was no suggestion that Trescothick would go on to emulate Lathwell let alone anything more. He scored 1 and 3 against Lancashire, courtesy of a couple of snicks through the slips, dismissed in each innings by England’s Phil DeFreitas. It is a match that, as a Lancastrian, I recall quite well. The Red Rose needed a mere 88 in the fourth innings to win, but thanks to a career best 9-32 from Andy Caddick they failed by 15 runs.

For Somerset’s next match, which he would otherwise have played in, Trescothick was out after an injury sustained in a club match. He did make the first team twice more that season, but scores of 6,0,4 and 0 meant he ended the summer at the bottom of the Somerset averages, with an ignominious 2.66. His three List A appearances were a little more successful, but all in all it was not an auspicious start.

In 1994 Trescothick again made the side against Lancashire in May. He scored 7 and 0 in an innings defeat. Somerset stuck with him though and he played in the next game against Hampshire. His life flashed before him on two when, facing West Indian paceman Winston Benjamin, he popped up a straightforward catch to Tony Middleton at short leg. Luck was on Trescothick’s side however as Middleton spilled the chance. As Trescothick wrote in his autobiography I could have kissed him. He went on to make 81 and never looked back. At the end of 1994 only county captain Andy Hayhurst headed him in the county averages.

In its 1994 edition Wisden chose not to make mention of Trescothick’s disastrous start, but waxed lyrical the following year in describing him as the discovery of the year. A huge future was predicted, but then Trescothick’s career stalled, and not just for a single season. In 1995 and 1997 his performances were woeful, and although a little better in 1996 and 1998 he remained inconsistent and certainly was not shaping up as a future England player.

What was the problem? Throughout his life Trescothick had found run scoring easy. Physically he was an early developer and he dominated throughout the age groups without having to work too hard on his technique. As a result there were deficiencies, mainly as a result of limited footwork and a desire to hammer everything outside the off stump. The wily old pros on the county circuit quickly worked out that Trescothick could resist anything except temptation, and there were many avoidable dismissals.

By 1999 Trescothick had curbed some of the excesses and had a better summer culminating in September in a dominant innings of 167 out of 256 scored whilst he was at the wicket. The significance of the innings, against Glamorgan, was that the watching Glamorgan coach was Duncan Fletcher, due to take over the helm of the England team a few days later. Fletcher spoke to his Somerset counterpart, Dermot Reeve, who gave Trescothick’s shot selection a less than enthusiastic reference. Fletcher’s reaction, thankfully, was I could not believe it, because he should just have been put at the top of the order and told to get on with it.

It would be the following April before Trescothick and Fletcher ever spoke, but Fletcher made sure that Trescothick was selected for the England A tour of Bangladesh and New Zealand that winter. His performances on the trip were patchy, and the party’s manager, Mike Gatting, was little more enthusiastic about Trescothick in his reports to Fletcher than Reeve had been. Again however Fletcher stuck to his guns and selected Trescothick for the first time in an ODI against Zimbabwe in July 2000. He scored 79 in a defeat which, without his century partnership with Graeme Hick, would have been of embarrassing proportions.

Within four weeks Trescothick was making his Test debut against a West Indies side whose attack was still led by a couple of true greats, Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose. The selectors had been trying Mark Ramprakash as Mike Atherton’s opening partner, but dropped him after the second Test. Trescothick’s 66 and 38* helped England to a draw, and the opener’s job was filled for the next six years.

That six year period brought Trescothick 76 Test caps and he also appeared in 123 ODIs and, in the format’s earliest days, three successful T20 Internationals. His Test career ended with an average of 43.79 and 14 centuries. In ODIs there were a dozen centuries and an average of 37.37. His strike rate was 85. All things considered the finest of those innings is certainly the 180 against South Africa that James Mettyear so vividly reconstructs in the accompanying extract from Masterly Batting, but for most the best memories of Trescothick at the crease come from the heady days of the Ashes 2005, and his 90 on the first morning of the Edgbaston Test, as well as the several other significant contributions he made to that magical summer.

It is impossible to look at Trescothick’s international record without wondering what might have been. The depressive illness which so affected him on tour and brought about that early retirement from the international game must have had a negative impact on those 76 matches and, impressive though the figures are how much better might they have been? And what sort of records might have been set had Trescothick played at the top, as he might well have, for another decade? Trescothick’s record is, as it stands, that of a very good batsman, but statistics don’t always tell the whole truth, and at his peak Trescothick was up there with the very best.

The story of Trescothick’s battle with his demons is compellingly told in his 2008 autobiography, Coming Back to Me, but despite the hopes that lingered amongst most of us for many years there was never any suggestion from Trescothick that he might feel able to reverse his decision. His absence from the international stage was all the more frustrating because of the way he continued his First Class career. After a mediocre 2006, when his demons were at their worst, Trescothick came back with a vengeance in 2007 and for the next five seasons was a dominant force in English county cricket. In 2009 he was the highest run scorer in the country with 1,817 and fifth in the averages at 75.70. Two years later he topped the runs table again with 1,673 and this time 79.33 gave him the second best average.

Ankle surgery meant that Trescothick missed a large chunk of the 2012 summer and in 2013, although he was able to play a full season, he missed his thousand runs and failed to reach three figures even once. It was tempting to conclude that anno domino had caught up with him, but those of us who thought that were proved wrong as he then enjoyed three more summers of rich pickings before, as he passed his fortieth birthday, the big scores began to prove more elusive.

Thus far 2019 has been a disappointment for Trescothick and his legion of fans, hence undoubtedly his decision to call time on his career at the end of this summer. Let us hope that there is time left for at least one more big score from the Trescothick blade and, as a man whose horse is currently in the second division, nothing would please me more than to see his swan song coincide with the Championship pennant flying, for the first time, over the County Ground at Taunton.

 

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