Turnarounds
Martin Chandler |Published: 2019
Pages: 31
Author: Whimpress, Bernard
Publisher: WHIM Press
Rating: 3 stars
Bernard Whimpress has an excellent track record for producing interesting pieces of cricket research, and Turnarounds is the latest title to flow from his own imprint. The booklet is centred around two Sheffield Shield summers, those of 1900/01 and 1926/27. New South Wales feature in both, their opponents being South Australia at the start of the twentieth century, and then Victoria.
In mid-December of 1900 the New South Welshmen visited the Adelaide Oval and lost by an innings and 36. The main reason was Clem Hill, who scored an unbeaten 365 out of 576. For the return fixture just over a fortnight later New South Wales made three changes, and the South Australians two. The Sydney Cricket Ground was a much happier hunting ground for the home side as they won by the huge margin of an innings and 605 runs. A turnaround it most certainly was.
Christmas 1926 saw New South Wales at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Batting second the Victorians made the small matter of 1,107, and won by an innings and 656. This time both sides made six changes for the return at the SCG a month later. This time the scoring was rather more restrained, and indeed in their first innings Victoria were dismissed for 35. They did better in the second innings, but still lost by an innings and 253, thus an even more spectacular turnaround than in 1900/01.
Whimpress introduces all the combatants, writes a summary of each days play and sets out a full scorecard for each of the four matches. Slightly disappointingly there are no photographs other than that of the MCG scoreboard recording that 1,107, but then perhaps that is enough.
Interesting too is the introduction that Whimpress begins with, although a couple of digressions have landed him in hot water with this reviewer’s better half. His ‘mistake’ was referencing a couple of other sporting turnarounds. Mine was then being caught looking on the internet for books on the 1966 US Masters, and a men’s singles semi-final at Wimbledon in 1927.
Turnarounds has been produced in a limited edition of 50 signed and numbered copies and is very reasonably priced at $AUS15.
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