My Summer of 1977

Martin Chandler | 7:40am GMT 18 March 2018

Published: 2017
Pages: 16
Author: Battersby, David
Publisher: Battersby, David
Rating: 3.5 stars

There seems in the case of many of us to be a hereditary predisposition to cricket addiction. I often wonder whether fathers realise this when they first take their young children to the matches in which they are playing. It is an easy way of keeping the favoured son or daughter out of mischief. You can give them a scoring book and spend a few minutes demonstrating how to score and that’s it. Not only are they no trouble but it really won’t be very long before they can be trusted with the club book. But as with all things there are consequences. Some offspring will prove in turn to be talented players, and they perhaps have the easier time in the future in finding an outlet. Others of us have to gain our pleasure vicariously through the acts of others, and by reliving the glories of days gone by.

That is what happened to this reviewer, and a similar fate befell David Battersby. He was perhaps a little more fortunate that in the summer of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, the Sex Pistols and the breaking of the news about World Series Cricket he got to see rather more county cricket than I did, but his passion was fed in much the same insidious ways that mine was. Well meaning parents supplied a Playfair Annual, and once that was devoured a Wisden and copies of The Cricketer. The professional cricketers themselves didn’t help, by virtue of the patient way they tolerated the inane babble that accompanied requests for autographs.

Some might say that My Summer of 1977 is a piece of self-indulgent nostalgia, and they would certainly have a point. It would be wasted on the casual cricket enthusiast, and were it anything approaching a full length book would probably not go down well with bibliophiles either. As it is however this concise and entertaining memoir will strike a chord with cricket tragics everywhere. Its impact is heightened by the regular deployment of some good quality photographs of Battersby’s earliest memorabilia acquisitions.

There are exactly one hundred signed and numbered copies of the booklet available, at a cost of just £4 including postage to UK addresses. As ever with Battersby’s productions we are happy to pass on contact details to anyone who emails us. Those in the southern hemisphere who are interested can, as an alternative, order through Roger Page.