A Look at the Alderman

As a race, we Yorkshiremen are rude, boorish, stubborn, aggressive, argumentative, disruptive, intolerant and and just plain downright bloody-minded. We harbour a series of complexes ranging from inferiority to persecution, and we are violently resentful of authority in any guise.

A man with the clarity of thought to come up with those words, and the honesty to express them, has to be someone worth listening to and Don Mosey aka ‘The Alderman’ was most certainly that. 

For all of us of a certain age Mosey first came to our attention for his work as a commentator on Test Match Special back in the mid 1970s. He was the one with the commanding presence and slightly fearsome voice, tempered by an occasionally impish sense of humour and just enough of an accent to make it clear he was from the Broadacres.

Mosey hailed from Keighley and was a product of what is now considered a bygone age. Strictly brought up in a household that esteemed the value of education above all else all three of Mosey and his two younger brothers secured scholarships to Keighley Grammar School. That much said Mosey shone only at languages, left school at fifteen and went straight into journalism. His Headmaster’s final report on him was, apparently, good but not as good as he thinks he is.

There was a break in 1941 when, a couple of years after starting his career with the Craven Herald Mosey went into the RAF where, after training as air crew, he travelled the world for four and half years, a goodly part of them spent teaching Indians English in the Iraqi desert. On being demobbed he went straight back to the Craven Herald and continued his progress, moving onwards and upwards until, in 1959, he became the Northern Cricket Correspondent of the Daily Mail. A decent club player in the Wharfedale League himself, Mosey developed strong and lasting friendships within the all-powerful Yorkshire eleven of the early 1960s.

In 1964 Mosey left the Daily Mail. As my introductory paragraph makes clear he was not a man to suffer fools gladly. He left after being incensed over a dispute where the bean counters were able to overrule the creative minds, and he decamped to BBC Radio and began a new career as Outside Broadcasts producer for the North of England.

It was 1974 when Mosey joined TMS, and 1978 before, to the best of my knowledge, he first wrote a book, so he was 54. The book in question was Brian Close’s autobiography, I Don’t Bruise Easily. One of the first cricket books I ever read, I recall thoroughly enjoying the book, although I now know it received somewhat mixed reviews. Alan Gibson, for a year a colleague on TMS, reviewed it for The Cricketer and described it as very readable but at the same time expressed disappointment that it was rather a sad, sour book. I refer back to my opening paragraph! Much the same comments can be made in respect of Mosey’s next writing assignment, Ray Illingworth’s 1980 autobiography, Yorkshire and Back. 

Another collaboration with a Yorkshire great, Fred Trueman, appeared at the end of 1982. I have not read My Most Memorable Matches but the humorous cover and involvement of cartoonist Roy Ulyett suggest it was a more light hearted work than the next Mosey book, another ghosting exercise, this time John Hampshire’s Family Argument. In Wisden Cricket Monthly Simon Wilde put it succinctly when he concluded the book was highly recommended to all those who like a blood-bath with plenty of victims and, again, I refer back to my opening paragraph.

In 1984 Mosey retired from his position with BBC Outside Broadcasts although he remained with TMS for another seven years. As far as his writing was concerned his only non-cricket book appeared in 1984, although there was a cricketing connection, Fred Trueman’s Yorkshire being about the topography of the pair’s beloved county.

The following year, 1985, Mosey’s name appeared as an author in his own right for the first time with The Best Job in the World. The book is essentially autobiographical concentrating, as the title suggests, on his role with TMS. Long time colleague Christopher Martin-Jenkins described the book as charitable and entertaining. No great controversy there then, which is something that cannot be said of Mosey’s other 1985 book, Boycott, a biography of the great man, and one which was anything but authorised. It was not a book that found favour with its subject who, two years later in his own autobiography, stated scathingly that Mosey’s book was what purports to be an unbiased biography. It is also the book from which my opening paragraph originates.

The reality of the situation was that Mosey had known Boycott throughout his professional career. He had watched him develop, as well as observed at close quarters the great team he had been a part of in the 1960s. On the other side of the coin he had seen the gradual disintegration of the White Rose, both on and off the field, as the 1970s passed into the 1980s and observed Boycott’s role in that.

In fact it would seem that until November 1983 the two had got on well, Mosey’s take on what happened next is that in a television interview in November 1983 I had offered the suggestion that Geoffrey was not perfect in every way and this had meant the end of a beautiful friendship.

In truth Mosey was probably the ideal person to write the book at that time (Boycott still had one season left as a Yorkshire player). He knew his subject as well as anyone and, having previously worked with Close, Illingworth and Hampshire, had access to a vast amount of testimony from others who knew his subject equally well. The resulting book paid due regard to Boycott’s pre-eminence as a player, but left no reader in any doubt as to what Mosey perceived to be the flaws in his character.

As to how the book was received it was certainly well reviewed. In The Cricketer former Glamorgan all-rounder Peter Walker, who would therefore have ‘had dealings’ with Boycott over many years, felt that Mosey encapsulated the central core of his subject with rare insight. David Frith in Wisden Cricket Monthly was a little more guarded and in Wisden John Arlott did his usual deft job of telling his reader what the book was about, without actually giving away what he himself thought of his old friend’s work.

Having taken on a mighty challenge in 1985 Mosey did the same again with Botham in 1986. Once more the scenario was a mighty cricketer whose professional and private lives both made headlines. Again Mosey had originally been a good friend of Botham (in a later book he wrote of reading stories to a young Liam Botham whilst the youngster was sat on his knee), but the relationship soured. At one point when invited to interview Botham by the BBC Mosey declined to conduct a conversation with that loud-mouthed hooligan.

At this time books on the subject of Botham seemed to appear every few months, and his momentous deeds were generally carried out in the full glare of the cameras and reporters. A simple cricketing biography was never going to work, and wasn’t what Mosey attempted. As with Boycott Mosey in effect took Botham’s on-field achievements as read, and attempted to analyse the personality behind them. Inevitable the result was not something which its subject would have enjoyed reading, and neither of Botham’s autobiographies make any mention of Mosey at all.

In many ways it has to be said that Mosey’s book is a fair portrayal of Botham’s faults, and on occasion in analysing those he does apportion blame to factors other than Botham himself. The problem ultimately however, and much the same can be said of Boycott, is that if the heroics on the pitch are ignored, and likewise the good deeds off it, such as the charity walks, then no biography can be truly impartial however much the writer might set out with that intention.

There was no book from Mosey in 1987, but two in 1988. The first, credited to Mosey and Trueman, has the unattractive title of Cricket Statistics Year by Year 1946-1987. Given the title of the book there are inevitably some numbers in the book, but they are incidental to the main purpose of the book which is simply to record a dialogue between Mosey and Trueman as they recall each of those 42 summers and to reproduce around one hundred excellent photographs.

Next up was We Don’t Play it for Fun, which has the sub-title A Story of Yorkshire Cricket. It sounds like a history, but it isn’t, and I will mention again my opening paragraph. To that I will add some more of Mosey’s own words. He writes that the book is written with unashamed sentiment, natural pride and the most enormous affection and I admit readily and happily that I wrote much of it with a great lump in my throat. Later he adds: If lesser mortals, unfortunate enough to be born on less hallowed ground, do not really understand our point of view then that is their problem, because we know that it is right. So what is the book if not a history? It is a collection of pen portraits and other stories ranging over the entirety of the county’s history. Yorkshiremen will love it, and reading it is also an instructive experience for the neutral.

In 1989 another Mosey biography appeared, and of another Yorkshireman, albeit on this occasion of a man who played his county cricket for Surrey and, briefly in his declining years, for Essex. Laker is one of three biographies of the great off-spinner and there is not much to choose between them. Laker was perhaps a little more avuncular than Mosey, but that observation apart the pair clearly shared much more than just the county of their birth.

There were to be three more books from Mosey, one in 1990 and then two more the following year. The first was Mosey’s contribution to the most famous brand in cricket literature as he penned The Wisden Book of Captains on Tour something which, having been on five tours, he was well placed to write.

The first of Mosey’s two books in 1991 was his last biography and, perhaps, a fitting one as he produced Fred – Then and Now, a biography of his great friend Trueman. Dividing a book of modest proportions, less than two hundred pages, into two parts Mosey gave almost equal space to Trueman’s life after cricket as he did to his playing career. Once more the book is redolent of the sentiments set out in my opening paragraph but, on this occasion, Mosey’s subject would doubtless have approved of the finished product, despite the book being completely unauthorised.

Finally came a full autobiography, The Alderman’s Tale, the release of which coincided with Mosey’s retirement from the TMS commentary box. It is a curious book. It tells the story of Mosey’s life very well, and it came as no surprise to anyone that there was some criticism of his employers, but the scale of that was unexpected. Although he worked happily with the likes of Old Etonians Henry Blofeld and Brian Johnston he did not like the way the old school tie ran the show and was particularly resentful when Martin-Jenkins, an Old Marlburian, was appointed BBC Cricket Correspondent ahead  of him in 1972.

The Alderman’s Tale brings to mind a book of one of the subjects of Mosey’s biographies, Jim Laker. Back in 1960 Laker published Over to Me, the ghosted autobiography that was so critical of his county captain, Peter May, amongst others and which I told the story of here. So sour was the tone of Laker’s book that it gave the casual reader the impression that Laker cannot have enjoyed his life in cricket at all, and The Alderman’s Tale did much the same for Mosey, even though anyone who had read The Best Job in the World was well aware that that was not the case.

After he retired from TMS Mosey moved to Morecambe in Lancashire from where he kept an eye on the career of his son, Ian, a professional golfer. He did not write any more books although he did contribute to each of the first fourteen issues of Cricket Lore including making a withering attack on the decision made by Yorkshire to, for the 1992 summer, remove the long cherished prohibition on those born outside the ridings playing for Yorkshire. His final piece for the magazine, and as far as I am aware his last published work anywhere, reprised the best chapter in The Alderman’s Tale, the inspiring story of Mosey’s great friend, former Australian seamer Neil Hawke.

Don Mosey was 74 when he died in 1999. He had a few health problems latterly and had been advised to give up smoking. His reply was: no chance of me giving up the slim, cool comfort, I’ll be fine and dandy – in closing I refer back to my opening paragraph once more.

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/3jGNzqY

Jim Laker in Print

Jim Laker was a great bowler. He may or may not be the finest off spinner to have played the game, but a return of 193 Test wickets at 21.24 certainly makes him a candidate. Whatever the outcome of that discussion is Laker will always be a cricketing legend given that his achievement of taking 19 for 90 against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956 remains unchallenged and, almost certainly, will remain so in perpetuity.

It was hardly surprising when, following that remarkable performance, publishers rushed to sign up the man who had enthralled the nation, and it was Frederick Muller Limited who secured the rights to publish Laker’s autobiography. In the 1950s Mullers was one of the leading publishers in that field also, at various times, publishing books in the names of Colin Cowdrey, Trevor Bailey, Tom Graveney and Bill Edrich. Today there is no trace of the company’s imprint, although its lineage can be traced through to Penguin Random House.

Spinning Round the World appeared in 1957. There is nothing remarkable about the content of the book and, with Laker having been the subject of three posthumous biographies, there are no compelling reasons for anyone to seek out a copy today. That said there is one chapter that remains of some interest, the final one, where Laker looked forward in order to speculate as to what cricket in the year 2000, forty three years on from when his book was written, might be like. There are a number of predictions that have proved a little wide of the mark, but overall Laker’s vision of the future was a prescient one.

The second book from, nominally, Laker’s pen appeared three years later, published once more by Frederick Muller. It is therefore now sixty years since Over To Me hit the nation’s bookstores. The season before its publication, 1959, had been Laker’s last in a long and successful career for Surrey and England. During the previous winter, 1958/59, he had, for the first and only time, toured Australia with England and had played his final Test matches.

By the standards of the time the book was a sensation and its contents caused such a furore that Surrey severed their links with Laker and his honorary MCC Membership was withdrawn – it was to be 1967 before those privileges were restored. What was particularly controversial about the book were the criticisms that Laker made of his Surrey and England captain, Peter May, and the manager of the 1958/59 tour, Freddie Brown.

Laker had been incensed early in the 1958 season when, to his mind, May accused him of not trying in a County Championship fixture. There then followed a difficult period for the Test selectors when, as a result of his skipper’s slight, Laker withdrew his indication he would be available for the forthcoming Ashes Tour. Neither man ever really backed down although a compromise was eventually found that enabled Laker to tour. The initial part of the book spells out in far from gentle terms Laker’s grievance on the subject.

Having won the previous three series against their old rivals England had been expected to do well in Australia. In the event an ageing English team was easily beaten by a much younger Australian side. This was the series of the great throwing controversy and that, coupled with the failing team spirit of the England side, contributed to the defeat. Laker did as well as could be expected in the series, taking 15 wickets at just 21 apiece, but he was angered by the tour management over their attitude towards his fitness and the greater part of the book sets out his thoughts on the tour and its management in rather more forthright terms than was considered appropriate at the time.

Back home in 1959 Surrey’s remarkable run of seven consecutive county championship victories came to an end and Laker had further concerns about May’s captaincy, on the relatively rare occasions when he was available, and his treatment by the club generally and Over To Me concluded with another dig at Laker’s former employers regarding the season.

Those against May and Brown were not however all of Laker’s grievances by any means. It does, looking back, seem strange that between his debut and his last Test in Australia in 1958/59 Laker missed almost as many Test as he played in. He was particularly disappointed not to have been selected for Australia in 1950/51 and 1954/55, the more so that the off spinning options the selectors went for on those occasions were, respectively, a 19 year old Brian Close and Glamorgan’s Jim McConnon. In the event Close played in one Test and took 1-28, and McConnon was not selected for any of the Tests on Len Hutton’s triumphant tour.

In Over to Me Laker is also less than complimentary about some of his other contemporaries. In terms of looking forward to a captain beyond May he wrote of Cowdrey, at the moment I don’t think much of his captaincy. He does silly things of the sort that no Test captain can possibly afford. He described Ted Dexter as a poor man’s Trevor Bailey. Laker’s disillusionment with amateurs was perhaps predictable, but he was no less unkind about Denis Compton whose punctuality he criticised and who he did not consider to be especially bright, a perhaps surprising judgment to pass on a man who had played a not inconsiderable role in bringing about the partial rapprochement that paved the way for his making the trip to Australia in 1958.

Another fellow professional to be criticised by Laker was the Yorkshire slow left arm bowler Johnny Wardle. Never an easy man to get on with, Wardle was sacked by Yorkshire in 1958 due to comments he made about his amateur captain at Yorkshire, Ron Burnet. Laker described Wardle as selfish, and giving an immense amount of trouble to his captain, as well as questioning his courage when batting against fast bowlers. 

Having, as a result of his sacking by Yorkshire, missed out on an invitation to tour in 1958/59 Wardle nonetheless travelled to Australia, with a ghost writer, in order to report on the series. Also present amongst the press corps were two other former players, Bill Edrich and the South African off spinner Hugh Tayfield. The latter Laker effectively described as a cheat and he was deeply critical of both Tayfield and Edrich (Wardle was specifically excepted from this one) on the basis that despite reports on the matches appearing with their bylines they did not actually bother to watch any of the cricket. 

In a strange sideshow Monty Garland-Wells, public schoolboy, Oxford Blue, former Surrey captain and a solicitor, suggested to Edrich that what was written about him was libellous and a complaint was made. Edrich’s book on the same 1958/59 series was also published by Frederick Muller, and that perhaps is part of the reason why, the complaint having been received, an apology was made, Edrich’s legal costs paid and the offending words removed from a reprint of Over to Me. Certainly by twenty first century standards it is difficult to see how anyone can seriously have thought the words used were defamatory.

There can be little doubt that the contents of Over to Me represented Laker’s thoughts on the various subjects it deals with. He did, however, recognise that he had made mistakes and in an unusual step he, effectively, apologised for what he had written in the foreword to a book he subsequently published regarding the 1961 Ashes Series. Without seeking to lay the blame for the controversial passages elsewhere Laker did give the explanation that he had not spent sufficient time with the ghost writer who actually prepared the book. That said, as one would expect from a straight speaking Yorkshireman, Laker did not seek to disassociate himself from what was actually said in his name, merely the manner in which it was articulated.

As to whether Over to Me is worth reading half a century on rather depends on the extent to which its subject matter appeals. For anyone approaching the subject of Laker for the first time he has, as indicated, been the subject of three biographies published in 1989, 1998 and 2006 by Don Mosey, Alan Hill and Brian Scovell respectively, all of which give a much fuller picture of the man, his life and times than this snapshot. All of them deal with the Over to Me controversy albeit not in the greatest of detail. If you choose to go beyond one or more of those three widely available books and search around for a copy of Over to Me you will be faced by a book which, perhaps inevitably, is interesting more by virtue of the events that followed its publication than its contents which, to modern eyes, seem sour, but essentially unremarkable. 

There are, there can be no doubt, interesting insights from time to time in the original book but there is certainly nothing in Over to Me that those interested in the history of the game, or in Laker himself, will not be able to learn elsewhere. Personally my thoughts on completing the book were to wonder what all the fuss was about coupled with the impression that Laker seemed not to have enjoyed his time in the game at all, something which surely, given the magnitude of his cricketing achievements, cannot have been the message he wanted to convey.

Who was the ghost concerned? The man it was not, and who it had been hoped would do the job, was Ron Roberts, a respected and immensely capable cricket journalist who was destined to die at the tragically young age of 38 in 1965. In the event the job was entrusted to Christopher Ford, primarily a writer on Rugby Union and Music for The Guardian and later The Times. As far as I am aware Over to Me was his only cricket project. I have not been able to establish who ghosted Spinning Round the World, nor indeed Laker’s book the following year, The Australian Tour of 1961.

The book on the 1961 series was the only tour account that Laker ever wrote and indeed it would be another 18 years before another book bore his name. For those interested in the era it is worth buying for the foreword alone, and the first chapter contains an interesting digression on the subject of Tony Lock’s benefit, the then highly topical throwing controversy as well as weighing in with Laker’s views on Tom Graveney’s split with Gloucestershire. That apart Laker sets the scene by looking at the thrilling series that had just ended between the visitors and West Indies before telling the story of the five Ashes Tests, a series won 2-1 by Richie Benaud’s Australians. Much more careful this time round there was nothing controversial in Laker’s descriptions of the Tests, and indeed he had clearly changed his mind about Dexter’s abilities.

As a retired player Laker acquired a number of business interests, so much so that he was able to resume his playing career, playing thirty matches for Essex between 1962 and 1964 as an amateur. He wasn’t quite the force he had been, but 111 wickets at 21.32 demonstrated that as he passed his fortieth birthday Laker was still a fine bowler.

No further writing bearing Laker’s name, other than in newspapers and magazines, appeared until 1979 when Hamlyn published A Spell From Laker. The book is not dissimilar to a coffee table book, albeit in a slightly smaller format. Profusely illustrated the book is divided into a number of chapters several of which deal with specific grounds, with others covering a diverse range of cricketing subjects including a couple of Laker’s favourites, Tony Lock and the vexed question of benefits. The verdict in Wisden Cricket Monthly was a straightforward one; for people who want to know how he talks, how he thinks and what he thinks, this is, simply enough, authentic Jim Laker.

In 1985, a year before his untimely death, Laker’s last book appeared. Although a more than capable writer in his own right Laker chose to share the writing duties with his long time Express collaborator, Pat Gibson. Cricket Contrasts is an unprepossessing looking little book but despite that is an excellent read. Unlike some of his contemporaries Laker was happy to accept that modern heroes might be as good as or even better than the giants of his era and the greater part of the book is devoted to a series of head to head comparisons.

In the book Laker also gives an account of three famous Tests, ’his’ match, Jessop’s match in 1902 and Botham’s in 1981, before going on to compare various features of the game in his time to the (then) current state of cricket. Subjects there include Yorkshire, South Africa, the limited overs game and the way cricket is reported. There are a few autobiographical elements as well including some entertaining stories about his being coached by Emmott Robinson as a youngster

If it were not for the enduring fame brought about by his 19/90 Jim Laker would be remembered today primarily as a commentator and his avuncular but clearly expert descriptions of Test and limited overs cricket for BBC television through the 1970s and early 1980s. He was still ‘in harness’ when he died at the age of 64 in April 1986 as a result of complications arising from surgery on his gall bladder.

As indicated since Laker’s death Don Mosey, Alan Hill and Brian Scovell have all written biographies of a man from who, had he lived for longer than he did, would undoubtedly have produced a fascinating autobiography. All three of the books are well worth reading but, perhaps inevitably given that he had the work of his predecessors available to him, the best is that of Scovell who, as a young journalist in the 1960s, had assisted Laker with some of his newspaper work.

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/2C238Zk

Is India’s Fast Bowling Renaissance Real This Time?

Under the stewardship of skipper Virat Kohli, India’s men national team have established several records. This has happened in both formats with the team at one point sealing the number one position of the ICC World Test Rankings for Teams in 2019. Today, the team stands behind Australia and New Zealand in Men’s Test Team Rankings.

The team might have floundered at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England, but it has continued performing excellently in ODI and t20. While the team boasts of talent all-round, the batting skills of the team have been instrumental in driving this success.

As the cricket world enjoys a renaissance, India is at the forefront of this revolution. Could this be the motivation the Men in Blue need to reclaim their position at the top of the game?

Indian Amazing Bowling Capacity

The Indian team boasts some of the best bowlers to walk the greens. The team’s test bowling records are at par with the best, and this is something even the best analysts agree about.

In 2017 the Men in Blue were involved in 11 Tests, winning 7 of these. In 2018, they played 14 Tests and won seven. In all these victories, it was the team’s bowling section that contributed a lot.

The bowling unit consists of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav. Of these players, Bumrah, Sharma and Shami have been the most influential.

They have set standards that other cricketing nations are keenly watching. They are among the most popular individual bets on www.comeon.com/in/ where bettors can win big on live-play when India plays.

While at home, spinners have played a greater role, pacers have had a bigger impact away from home. The contribution of pacers has been seen in big matches against South Africa, England, Australia and West Indies. The same top performance was seen against Sri Lanka and other top teams.

Among the fastest bowlers in the world today, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah which highlights the bowling potential in the Indian team. The uncapped pacer Prasidh Krishna is also about to break into the national team according to the skipper Kohli.

Fast Bowling on the Rise

Recent remarks attributed to former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop who’s now a commentator have highlighted the revolution going on in Indian cricket. Bishop contends that the country is leading a renaissance across the cricketing world with more focus on fast bowling.

The commentator posits this is a golden age of fast bowling and it’s easy to see why he thinks India is leading this revolution. With the likes of Bumrah, Yadav, Sharma and Shami in one team, you cannot ignore this fact.

Looking at other teams across the cricketing world, dominant players are fast bowlers with the likes of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood (England), Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood (Australia). Pakistan has the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, South Africa has Kagiso Rabada, and the Kiwis have Adam Milne.

Time for India to Rise? Final Thoughts

India has always boasted amazing talent in its ranks, but today, there’s something more about the style of play the team has. Magnificent bowlers now drive the team’s world-class performances and it’s easy to see why there’s a lot of excitement about the current crop of players. The mix of experience, excellent leadership, spinners and pacers, young blood will drive the Men in Blue to the apex.

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

New Books – An Overview for July 2020

The world is not the same place as it was when I wrote this piece in January of this year and, whilst the coming days should see a resumption of some international cricket, it is going to be some time before the old order of things is re-established, if indeed it ever is. Publishing has, perhaps, not been as badly affected as some areas of life, but bookselling certainly has, and only now is some semblance of normality returning.

At this stage I am not aware of any titles that the pandemic has actually cost us, at least not from the sort of titles that I normally look at. There are casualties however and, looking slightly further afield, I am for example, aware of the lack of some county annuals this year, and I have yet to come across a brochure from any of those unfortunate long serving county pros whose benefits were supposed to be happening this year.

In these strange times it is therefore reassuring that some things never change, one of which is that there were a number of titles that I missed last time round, so I will begin with a look at those. As usual it is a lengthy list.

I will begin with Anthony Collis’ booklet looking at clerics who have played for Worcestershire, and Extra Cover, a fine journal from the Stourbridge and District Cricket Society. I have also reviewed a very good book on cricket and cricketers from Scotland, and rather closer to home the first in what I hope will be a series of booklets from Hampshire Cricket Heritage. Tim Cawkwell has treated us to another of his books on the previous season’s cricket. Once again Cricket on the Edge expands his horizons from previous years.

Rather bulkier in size were Michael Gegg’s Those Were The Days, and Thomas Blow’s first book, The Honorary Tyke, examining Sachin Tendulkar’s year at Yorkshire in 1992, and a good deal more besides. A couple of our regular publishers have also contributed, Red Rose Books with Archie and Reggie Go Wild At Aigburth, and Hats off to Dean. John McKenzie is distributing copies of a bibliographer’s delight, Duncan Anderson’s Early Books on Nottinghamshire Cricket. Finally in this category is a privately published booklet that I reviewed last week, Simon Lawton Smith’s Cardus and Barbe: Gathering Rosebuds.

In addition we have had a couple of books that guests have reviewed for us, Keeping Up by Michael Bates and Tom Huelin, and an excellent book on the county cricket grounds of Kent by Howard Milton and Peter Francis.

So what new titles do we have to look forward to? I don’t suppose bookies are taking any bets on what will be the biggest selling cricket book of 2020. It is bound to be Bob Willis: A Cricketer and a Gentleman which we can expect from Hodder and Stoughton in August. The outpouring of grief in December last year at the passing of every cricket lover’s favourite curmudgeon was noteworthy and, although Willis produced an autobiography, Lasting the Pace, back in 1985, a full look at the life of one of England’s finest fast bowlers is certainly due. The book has been written by Mike Dickson and edited by Bob’s brother, David. 

Another England captain and noted broadcaster who was taken from us far too early was Tony Greig. In Greigy’s case there have already been two posthumous biographies, one by David Tossell and one by his mother and son, Joyce and Mark. Whether there is therefore room for a further look at Greig’s life might be questionable, but Greigy was a huge character, and his latest biographer is the former county cricketer Andy Murtagh, so I suspect that If Not Me Who? The Story of Tony Greig, The Reluctant Rebel will be well worth buying, even for those who already own one or both of the earlier books.

Dennis Amiss never led England, but was still a fine batsman over many years and his autobiography Not Out At Close of Play: A Life in Cricket is due next year. Former Kent and Derbyshire seamer James Graham Brown, like Murtagh now a retired schoolmaster, has been Amiss’s collaborator on the project.

I am aware of one other autobiography from an English cricketer that is due and that should be with us in November. Tales from the Front Line: The Autobiography of Luke Fletcher is, like the Greig book, coming from Pitch. His lack of international caps has not prevented seam bowler Fletcher being a huge favourite with the Nottinghamshire faithful and if the man charged with the writing duties, Dave Bracegirdle, does anything like as good a job as he did with Franklyn Stephenson’s autobiography last year this will be a good one.

At the end of October Bloomsbury are due to publish Chris Waters’ The Men Who Raised the Bar. The publishers’ blurb states that the book charts the growth of the record through nearly one hundred and fifty years of Test cricket. It is a journey that takes in a legendary line of famous names including Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Leonard Hutton, Sir Garfield Sobers and Walter Hammond, along with less heralded players whose stories are brought back into the light. Drawing on the reflections of the record-holders, Waters profiles the men who raised the bar and their historic performances.

Elsewhere a biography of Rohit Sharma by Vijay Lokapally is being publicised in India and in Australia, where there are a number of projects that I have previously announced still awaiting publication, one new one is Invincible: The Life and Times of Sam Loxton that has been written by Martin Rogers and is to be published by Ken Piesse’s imprint, cricketbooks.com.au.

Beyond these there are a few other books I am aware of. Patrick Ferriday is currently writing a biography of the great Yorkshire all-rounder Wilfred Rhodes. There has only ever been one life of Rhodes, written by Sidney Rogerson and published back in 1960, thirteen years before Rhodes’ death, so another look at the life of a man who took more than four thousand First Class wickets is long overdue.

With his publisher’s hat on Ferriday is also involved in another biography, this time a triple one with first time author John Flatley. The subjects here are the Headleys, George, Ron and Dean. The first great West Indian batsman, grandfather George, has been the subject of a number of books, but this is the first time that the interesting lives of son Ron, a long serving Worcestershire batsman (and, in 1973, West Indies Test player) and grandson Dean have been examined in any detail. Dean is, of course, the Middlesex, Kent and England seamer who promised so much before a persistent back injury ensured that his First Class career ended at the age of just 29. 

Two of our favourite self-publishers also have booklets in the offing. David Battersby tells me that he is currently working on a number of projects, albeit the only one likely to see the light of day in the near future is one concerning the legendary Gilbert Jessop’s 41 First Class appearances at the famous Cheltenham College ground, three of which were against the touring Australians. Philip Paine, he of the Innings Complete series and also a couple of bulkier volumes, is currently working on a series of monographs which I believe he plans to start publishing in the near future. Philip has been researching a number of lesser known England Test players of the dim and distant past and whilst he has not uncovered enough to contemplate writing full biographies of any of them he nonetheless plans to share the fruits of his labours with us.

Whilst on the subject of self-publishers I have come across a new one from Australia, by the name of Gideon Haigh. That in itself may give rise to a passing off action, strengthened no doubt by the fact that this GH, rather like the real one, has collected together some essays on men and matters historical. Unlike the true GH however this one has produced only a signed and numbered issue of 214 copies of Cricket in Mind and it seems that, folk falling for this simple ruse, all have been sold. This did make me wonder very briefly whether I may not be getting a little to cynical in my old age, so I have taken the precaution of asking Roger Page whether he has the book in stock, just in case the man himself really is involved.

And then there are Trumper and Bradman, the two men who get mentions most frequently in these pieces. Trumper has very recently been the subject of this splendid tome, the success of which has, I understand, persuaded Messrs Schofield and Lloyd to look into the viability of a similar volume on Bradman. As for Trumper himself I understand we are to have a new statistical work, noting his performances in each of the 533 matches he appeared in across all levels of the game. The author is Alfred James. 

Still in Australia the lockdown in New Zealand has unavoidably delayed the release of the leather bound multi signed edition of The Cricket Publishing Company’s biography of Stewie Dempster, Second Only To Bradman, the standard edition of which was some released some months ago. Those who ordered the special edition will be gratified to know it has now been released, so we will hopefully carry a review of that shortly.

In the past I have announced a number of forthcoming books from the CPC stable, and all are still jockeying for a position in the release schedule now that lockdown has eased. One that might sneak out first however is Zivko – The Spinner From Hell, a small hard-back of about 100 pages and the story of Tony Radanovic, a man born in a German labour camp who enjoyed a successful minor cricket career in Sydney, Adelaide and Queensland.

There is one other book that will be of interest in the biographical field and that is The Commonwealth of Cricket by the acclaimed Indian writer Ramachandra Guha. It is a book that has autobiographical elements to it but I understand that, to use the author’s words, it is more an account of cricket I have seen and cricketers I have known. Another acclaimed writer is David Frith, whose autobiography, Caught England Bowled Australia, was originally published back in 1997 and I understand that it is hoped an updated version will appear in the not too distant future.

The English counties are going to have a rough time in 2020, and there is a marked lack of books on county cricket this year, although there is one to mention. Before doing so I will plug a gap from five years ago by mentioning Pears 150: The Life and Times of Worcestershire CCC 1865-2014 by Andrew Thomas. The book is 540 pages of A4 sized book comprising half a million words and is still available. The reason for mentioning it now is that a baby brother has appeared in the form of a supplement bringing the story up to the end of last summer. The book should be available from the club shop, but if all else fails let us know and we will endeavour to put you in touch with Andrew.

No year, even one as strange as 2020, would be complete without something new from the Sussex Cricket Museum and whilst they will not be as active as in the past it is expected that there will be two publications this year. The first will be a monograph about the stirring deeds for the county of the Zimbabwean Murray Goodwin. Cricketarchive tells me that ‘Muzza’ averaged 49.22 for the county, which is a decent average, but was still a surprise to me as the bloke seemed to score a century every time he went to the crease. The author is Bruce Talbot.

The second museum publication is one that I have mentioned in passing before, the first in a series of six planned booklets about the county’s double centurions. I already knew that the author was Clive Paish, but hadn’t realised that the books were chronological rather than looking at particular innings. The first will cover the period up to the Great War, so if my arithmetic is correct (and I have to confess it is not noted for its accuracy) the legendary CB Fry will merit no fewer than a dozen mentions. It is hoped that the limited edition booklet will be signed by the great man’s grandson, also Charles, who celebrated his eightieth birthday earlier this year and who, primarily whilst an undergraduate at Oxford between 1959 and 1961, enjoyed a fifty match First Class career himself.

Moving on to matters historical we have three more interesting books due from Pitch. The first, later this month, is A Corner of Every Foreign Field: Cricket’s Journey from English Game to Global Sport from Tim Brooks, which the publishers describe as an innovative and thought-provoking take on the history of cricket, looking beyond the scorecards to the pivotal issues of class, politics and imperialism that have shaped the game today. Author Tim Brooks skilfully delves into the past while providing a unique vision for the future of cricket.

The second of these titles will follow on shortly afterwards and is Last Wicket Stand: Searching for Redemption, Revival and a Reason to Persevere in English County Cricket by Richard Clarke. I will quote the publishers again who describe the book as a refreshingly honest examination of county cricket, middle age, identity and coping with change. In his 50th year, Richard Clarke followed his beloved Essex CCC throughout the 2019 season, the last before the introduction of a controversial new competition that threatened to undermine domestic cricket in England forever. 

Last of the three, due in August, is The Thin White Line: The Inside Story of Cricket’s Greatest Scandal by Nick Greenslade. There are of course a few candidates for that title, and the one Greenslade has chosen is the gripping account of the spot-fixing scandal of 2010 which sent shockwaves through cricket. Taking the reader hour by hour through the fateful events of that August and beyond, it reveals how the News of the World uncovered the criminality of the Pakistan captain and his two best bowlers, and how its star reporter would follow them to jail.

Matters historical also feature heavily in the titles that Red Rose Books publish and there are three definitely in the offing from them. The first two are the fifth and sixth titles in Martin Tebay’s Red Rose Cricket Records Series and will appear, like their predecessors, in limited editions of thirty copies. The fifth is Red Rose Australians which recalls a match in 1907 when what remains the county’s record ninth wicket partnership was set by two Australians, Les Poidevin and Alec Kermode. The sixth, Alec Watson, goes back even further to 1876 when, in the county’s only ever First Class match at Rochdale, Watson took the first Lancashire hat-trick.

Every now and again Red Rose stray outside the county boundaries, often to Norfolk on the other side of the country and that is where their third offering comes from, Stephen Musk’s From Nightfighter to Scriptwriter, is the story of “JOC” Orton, a Norfolk cricketer, and very much more besides. This time there will be fifty copies but they are likely to fly off the shelves just as speedily as the two Lancashire booklets. Without wishing to give the game away I will simply make the observation that there are a not inconsiderable number of people who will buy ‘anything on Bradman’.

Turning now to the spirit of cricket that, perhaps slightly hackneyed, phrase appears in two forthcoming titles. The first is This is Cricket: In The Spirit of the Game by Daniel Melamud and Steve Waugh, a book which, from the publishers’ description, sounds like an essentially pictorial book dealing with the many and varied locations in which the game is played. The other is Spirit of Cricket: Reflections on Play and Life by former England Captain Mike Brearley, a man whose thoughts on the sometimes elusive concept are certain to be worth reading.

What of the publishing programme of the ACS? They have a number of titles coming out in the coming months, hopefully three in August followed by three more in November. The first is a purely statistical offering, West Indies: 1989/90 to 1998/99 of which the Association say, the seventh volume in our series of ‘Hard to Get’ scores series contains scorecards of the 246 first-class matches played in the West Indies in the ten seasons from 1989/90 to 1998/99, a large proportion of which can otherwise only be found in less substantial publications such as newspapers and magazines. It also includes a brief narrative introducing each season, and league tables for each season’s domestic first-class competition. The book is edited by Keith Walmsley who, now that is completed, will hopefully be able to concentrate on his next selection of Brief Candles.

Another essentially statistical book is Minor Counties 1914, this one edited by Julian Lawton Smith. This continues the series of books about Minor County cricket in the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes full scorecards for every Minor County game played in 1914, augmented by detailed information including season’s and career averages, detailed biographical information on the players, and a Roll of Honour for Minor County cricketers killed in the First World War.

Finally in August we will have another volume in the excellent Lives in Cricket series, Johnny Lawrence by Steve Bindman. The book covers the life of Yorkshireman Lawrence, a leg spinning all rounder who played 281 matches for Somerset in the years following World War Two.. As a coach Lawrence influenced Yorkshire players as recently as Ashley Metcalfe in the 1980s. Geoffrey Boycott has written a short foreword giving his recollections of Lawrence.

Moving on to November we will get A Game Divided: Triumphs and Troubles in Yorkshire Cricket from Jeremy Lonsdale. This follows on from Jeremy’s A Game Sustained: The impact of the First World War on Yorkshire cricket 1914-20 and examines one of the most successful sides in cricket history. It considers why, despite all its success, it was at times unpopular and subject to much criticism.

Also due in November is A Tall Story: The Life of Nigel Plews by Andrew Hignell. The book will be published in the Cricket Witness series and is based on Plews’ own notes and information provided by his family. It will tell the story, with many personal recollections, of the former police detective sergeant who was unusual enough in becoming a First Class umpire without having played the First Class game, and who then went on to stand in eleven Test matches.

Last but not least is the flagship of the ACS range, the Overseas First-Class Annual 2020. Now in its twelfth edition it will doubtless be rather slimmer than in previous years, but will maintain the ACS’s commitment to ensure that all First Class scorecards are available in print. It will contain the full scores of all matches played throughout the world in 2019/20, together with matches played outside England and Wales in the 2020 season. The book also incorporates a brief narrative for each ICC full member nation and final tables for the various competitions.

I am now almost at the end of this feature however before I finish there is one news item that is well worth reporting, that being the second coming of Fairfield Books. I am sure that all regular readers of cricket books will be delighted to know that Stephen Chalke has found a buyer for the company and also that, for a while at least, he will remain involved to assist in the hand over. I am not yet aware of any titles that may emerge from this, but hopefully some firm news of the new owners’ plans will be available in the not too distant future. As for Stephen himself he has been working for some time, with others, on a history of the Lansdown Club in Somerset. For various reasons we do not normally notice club histories in this feature, but having had a few insights into the contents of this one and given that Stephen is at the helm it sounds like a cracker. In any case how could anyone ignore a book entitled Horse and Cart to Helicopter?

One new book is due from Christopher Saunders Publishing and that is Robin Brodhurst’s book about his grandfather Harry Altham, with a foreword by Bob Barber. There will be a brief biography of a man who was a good enough batsman to appear more than fifty times in First Class cricket, albeit his is better known as an administraor and historian. The body of the book then consists of the correspondence between his Altham and Don Bradman around the time of the throwing controversy of the late 1950s.

To all who have stayed with me until now well done, you are nearly at the end. For future books  I have a couple more mentions, one for a book that I know is forthcoming, and another for one that I hope soon will be. The first is Andy Collier’s follow up to his splendid Across The Oceans of two years ago, a book that looked at the early history of Ashes cricket through from the perspective of the ships that took the England touring parties to the Antipodes between 1861 and 1963. The follow-up will, naturally, deal with the other side of that particular coin, the Australian voyages to the mother country.

My last mention is then about a tour book, and one that has already been written, but has yet to find a publisher. The subject matter strikes me as fascinating, being the tour of India by an Australian side in 1935/36. There was no Bradman, nor indeed any of the other leading Australians who, at the time, were undertaking a Test series in South Africa. Nonetheless the Australians could still call on senior players of the calibre of Charles Macartney, Jack Ryder, ‘Stork’ Hendry and Bert Ironmonger. In what proved to be an exciting four match ‘Test’ series the visitors scored two straightforward victories over their hosts before the Indians, inspired by the bowling of Nissar and the batting of Syed Wazir Ali, won the other two. The author is Megan Ponsford, granddaughter of the legendary Bill, who can be found tweeting as @megspon.

And finally, in the past I have, in writing this feature, generally restricted myself to giving each book a single mention, the purpose of which is to avoid duplication. It does however seem to me that where I have previewed a book in the past that has still not appeared, but whose release I am aware is imminent, that it should get another brief plug, thus these four get in:-

Just a Few Lines……  by David Warner (on Brian Close),

Speed Merchants by Gulu Ezekiel and Vijay Lokapally (a history of Indian pace bowling),

Mike Coward’s biography of Frank Tarrant,

and Tony Laughton’s book on Lord Brackley’s MCC tour of West Indies of 1905.

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