Cricket Books

[neville cardus]

I am reading Grovel atm, it is about the 1976 WI tour of England, great stuff, if you have a chance pick up a copy

That must now be this thread's most-mentioned item.

 

[stumpski]

Agreed, I'm afraid reading it will prove to be an anti-climax.

And we don't have a review - yet.

 

[fredfertang]

You wont be disappointed - the book comes complete with a time machine pre-set to take you back to that long hot summer

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I am reading Grovel atm, it is about the 1976 WI tour of England, great stuff, if you have a chance pick up a copy

That was an extraordinary summer weather wise and no one in this Country will ever see the like again, yet amazingly the Saturday at Lord's was rained off. I was quite annoyed that Mike Selvey was selected for the Old Trafford Test ahead of Peter Lee and Peter Lever of Lancashire. In a moment of youthful annoyance I bet my paper round money that Selvey wouldn't take a top order wicket in the match. After about 20 minutes he'd sent back Fredericks, Kallicharran and Richards and in the second innings got Greenidge and Lloyd...........£1.40 up in smoke.

 

[archie mac]

That must now be this thread's most-mentioned item.

Agreed, I'm afraid reading it will prove to be an anti-climax.

And we don't have a review - yet.

You wont be disappointed - the book comes complete with a time machine pre-set to take you back to that long hot summer

That was an extraordinary summer weather wise and no one in this Country will ever see the like again, yet amazingly the Saturday at Lord's was rained off. I was quite annoyed that Mike Selvey was selected for the Old Trafford Test ahead of Peter Lee and Peter Lever of Lancashire. In a moment of youthful annoyance I bet my paper round money that Selvey wouldn't take a top order wicket in the match. After about 20 minutes he'd sent back Fredericks, Kallicharran and Richards and in the second innings got Greenidge and Lloyd...........£1.40 up in smoke.

And was then dropped

Just finished it this morning, before walking the dog, a must read, he has interviewed everyone that matters except Close (not sure why not), I will review it soon, we have about 8 books on the back burner waiting to be put up on the front page

 

[Joe Ninety]

Had a great day book shopping today. Managed to pick up the following :-

Gods or Flannelled Fools - Keith Miller & R.S Whitington
Four Chukkas to Australia - Jack Fingleton
My World of Cricket - Neil Harvey
The Taylor Years - Ken Piesse
Australia 55 - Alan Ross
The Wildest Tests - Ray Robinson
Willow Patterns - Richie Benaud
The Quiet Australian - The Lindsay Hassett Story - R.S Whitington
Not Just For Openers - Keith Stackpole with Alan Trengrove
with the West Indies in Australia 1960-1961 - A.G.("Johnnie") Moyes
Sort of a Cricket Person - E.W. Swanton
and a Picador book of Cricket edited by Ramachandra Guha that contains pieces from all the great cricket writers to top the lot off.
Should keep me going till the start of the summer.

 

[archie mac]

Had a great day book shopping today. Managed to pick up the following :-

Gods or Flannelled Fools - Keith Miller & R.S Whitington
Four Chukkas to Australia - Jack Fingleton
My World of Cricket - Neil Harvey
The Taylor Years - Ken Piesse
Australia 55 - Alan Ross
The Wildest Tests - Ray Robinson
Willow Patterns - Richie Benaud
The Quiet Australian - The Lindsay Hassett Story - R.S Whitington
Not Just For Openers - Keith Stackpole with Alan Trengrove
with the West Indies in Australia 1960-1961 - A.G.("Johnnie") Moyes
Sort of a Cricket Person - E.W. Swanton
and a Picador book of Cricket edited by Ramachandra Guha that contains pieces from all the great cricket writers to top the lot off.
Should keep me going till the start of the summer.

Not sure if it is boasting or a sad indictment on wasting my time, but I have read all of this lot except one

 

[fredfertang]

And was then dropped

Just finished it this morning, before walking the dog, a must read, he has interviewed everyone that matters except Close (not sure why not), I will review it soon, we have about 8 books on the back burner waiting to be put up on the front page

In my view that is undoubtedly the key to the success of “Grovel” in particular, concerned as it was with only one tour, but also with all recent books of old history. At the end of the day however diligently an author ploughs through contemporary writings and reported thoughts from descendants and/or aged contemporaries there is no substitute for the insight of those involved and a few fresh soundbites.

I have recently spent some time looking again at (I must confess to not having reread it in full) Barry Valentine’s book “Cricket’s Dawn that Died” which has a similar starting point – in this case the 1938 Ashes series which was the only one (1909 apart) since the dawn of the Edwardian era which spawned no contemporary tour account .

The book was published in 1991 and so keen was I on the subject matter that it is one of the fairly small number of books I made a conscious effort to buy immediately on its release.

Now the absence of a tour account doesn’t of course mean that the series has been badly chronicled – numerous books have dealt with Hutton’s 364 and the last test as a whole and Stan McCabe’s 232 in the Trent Bridge test has been fully dealt with but apart from the mere gathering together of Cardus’s reports from the Manchester Guardian nothing devoted to the series as a whole had previously been published.

Like “Grovel”, “Dawn” puts the series in its social and historical context, in my view to just the right extent (they are cricket books after all – if we want a dissertation on social history we can get that elsewhere) so there is that parallel. In addition the start of “Dawn” puts English and Australian cricket at the time in context- probably not really needed in “Grovel” although the 50th anniversary edition in 2026 might need that! The presentation is a little different, more statistics for one thing, but the fact that the whole tour is followed is a common thread.

The difference in the two books is that while “Grovel” is alive and vibrant “Dawn” is a little stodgy and while a very interesting book it doesn’t, unlike “Grovel”, cause that sort of torment about whether you really do want to put the book down to answer the phone, that only the very best books do.

The difference is that “Dawn” seems to be wholly derived from the written word which goes back to Archie’s point – of course writing 50+ years after the event presents different problems from 30 years but on the English side Compton, Barnett and Wright were still alive in 1991 and from Australia Bradman, Brown, Hassett and O’Reilly. There must too have been many others with real, as opposed to acquired, memories of the series and I think it was a shame that their views weren’t sought.

But its still well worth a read and while this is hardly an important point it is a beautifully produced book.

 

[archie mac]

In my view that is undoubtedly the key to the success of “Grovel” in particular, concerned as it was with only one tour, but also with all recent books of old history. At the end of the day however diligently an author ploughs through contemporary writings and reported thoughts from descendants and/or aged contemporaries there is no substitute for the insight of those involved and a few fresh soundbites.

I have recently spent some time looking again at (I must confess to not having reread it in full) Barry Valentine’s book “Cricket’s Dawn that Died” which has a similar starting point – in this case the 1938 Ashes series which was the only one (1909 apart) since the dawn of the Edwardian era which spawned no contemporary tour account .

The book was published in 1991 and so keen was I on the subject matter that it is one of the fairly small number of books I made a conscious effort to buy immediately on its release.

Now the absence of a tour account doesn’t of course mean that the series has been badly chronicled – numerous books have dealt with Hutton’s 364 and the last test as a whole and Stan McCabe’s 232 in the Trent Bridge test has been fully dealt with but apart from the mere gathering together of Cardus’s reports from the Manchester Guardian nothing devoted to the series as a whole had previously been published.

Like “Grovel”, “Dawn” puts the series in its social and historical context, in my view to just the right extent (they are cricket books after all – if we want a dissertation on social history we can get that elsewhere) so there is that parallel. In addition the start of “Dawn” puts English and Australian cricket at the time in context- probably not really needed in “Grovel” although the 50th anniversary edition in 2026 might need that! The presentation is a little different, more statistics for one thing, but the fact that the whole tour is followed is a common thread.

The difference in the two books is that while “Grovel” is alive and vibrant “Dawn” is a little stodgy and while a very interesting book it doesn’t, unlike “Grovel”, cause that sort of torment about whether you really do want to put the book down to answer the phone, that only the very best books do.

The difference is that “Dawn” seems to be wholly derived from the written word which goes back to Archie’s point – of course writing 50+ years after the event presents different problems from 30 years but on the English side Compton, Barnett and Wright were still alive in 1991 and from Australia Bradman, Brown, Hassett and O’Reilly. There must too have been many others with real, as opposed to acquired, memories of the series and I think it was a shame that their views weren’t sought.

But its still well worth a read and while this is hardly an important point it is a beautifully produced book.

Top post

I do have that book, but I am yet to read it, I will have to move it up the list

 

[Lillian Thomson]

And was then dropped

Just finished it this morning, before walking the dog, a must read, he has interviewed everyone that matters except Close (not sure why not), I will review it soon, we have about 8 books on the back burner waiting to be put up on the front page

I think any interview with Closey would have to be edited so much to remove the expletives that there would be nothing left. In the three Tests he played he did as well as anyone and in the Old Trafford test he and John Edrich were the only two who batted for any length of time and both took a battering in the process. They were both left out supposedly to accomodate younger players. They brought in Peter Willey which was a fair enough gamble dispite his obvious limitations but the selection of the late Chris Balderstone at the age of 35 for his debut sent Closey in search of the nearest whiskey bottle.

 

[archie mac]

I think any interview with Closey would have to be edited so much to remove the expletives that there would be nothing left. In the three Tests he played he did as well as anyone and in the Old Trafford test he and John Edrich were the only two who batted for any length of time and both took a battering in the process. They were both left out supposedly to accomodate younger players. They brought in Peter Willey which was a fair enough gamble dispite his obvious limitations but the selection of the late Chris Balderstone at the age of 35 for his debut sent Closey in search of the nearest whiskey bottle.

They did use some bad language, with Steele the worst offender

One of the great gutsy innings by Close, he said the shine was off the ball because it was all over his chest!

 

[Lillian Thomson]

They did use some bad language, with Steele the worst offender

One of the great gutsy innings by Close, he said the shine was off the ball because it was all over his chest!

I've got this book on order and I'm looking forward to David Steele's contribution. He is one of the unluckier cricketers not to have played more Tests. He was 33 when he was finally selected - ironically Clive Lloyd had been saying for a few years before 1975 that Steele should be selected - there was then no tour that winter, they then decided he couldn't play spin so left him out of the tour to India in favour of recalling Brearley and Fletcher. There was talk of him playing in the Centenary Test but in the end they stuck with the originally tour party. Had Greig remained captain for the 1977 series I think Steele might have been selected but they had to find a batting spot for Brearley so there was no place for him.

 

[archie mac]

I've got this book on order and I'm looking forward to David Steele's contribution. He is one of the unluckier cricketers not to have played more Tests. He was 33 when he was finally selected - ironically Clive Lloyd had been saying for a few years before 1975 that Steele should be selected - there was then no tour that winter, they then decided he couldn't play spin so left him out of the tour to India in favour of recalling Brearley and Fletcher. There was talk of him playing in the Centenary Test but in the end they stuck with the originally tour party. Had Greig remained captain for the 1977 series I think Steele might have been selected but they had to find a batting spot for Brearley so there was no place for him.

Yes he expresses his opinion of being left out of the Centenary Test

I am sure you will enjoy the book

 

[TT Boy]

Can anyone recommend any cricket related books that actually don’t (intrinsically) focus upon the game itself and its nuances but rather on cricket’s cultural and social significance within society or upon the political climate of its era?

Most South African texts written since the country’s literature Black renaissance have used this approach and they are the cricket books I keep returning to.

Or any recommendations for any cricket books that are irreverent, away from the perceived norm of cricketing literature?

Cheers

 

[neville cardus]

I've got this book on order and I'm looking forward to David Steele's contribution.

As well you should. He is a speaker in the league of Munchausen and Fry, full of self-appreciating self-deprecation, but with an pesky penchant for inconsistency, repetition, exaggeration and anadiplosis. I enjoyed his video presentation of English Cricket's Six of the Best - The Seventies, although he played in only two of the matches featured, and have been searching long now for Come in Number Three, his autobiography.

 

[neville cardus]

I've got this book on order and I'm looking forward to David Steele's contribution.

As well you should. He is a speaker in the league of Munchausen, full of self-appreciating self-deprecation, albeit with a penchant for inconsistency, repetition, exaggeration and anadiplosis. I loved his presentation of English Cricket's Six of the Best - The Seventies (although he played in only two of the matches featured) and have long been searching for Come in Number Three, his autobiography. Anyone here read it?

EDIT: To TT_Boy I should recommend the Stoddart- and Sandiford-edited The Imperial Game (1998), whose contributors offer scholarly analyses of cricket's growth in various outposts of the British Empire. In sating your irreverent appetite, meanwhile, you need look no further than Harry East's Heart of Yorkshire Cricket (1973), Laughter at the Wicket (1980) and Cricket is for Fun (1981).

 

[fredfertang]

I am afraid that when you finally track down "Come in Number Three" you will probably be disappointed - typical ghosted stuff written in the name of someone who has a sales potential but who's career is not over so he doesn't want to cause too much controversy - the story of his rise to the England team and his cricketing apprenticeship is actually quite an interesting one his having a brother (John) who played for Leicestershire and then Glamorgan and a cousin (Brian Crump) who had a long career for Northants not to mention Uncle Stan (Crump) who played as a pro in the leagues for donkeys years and who is treated in the book with such reverence that you gain the impression he was a better player than the lot of them put together. An autobiography now, or better still a biography by Stephen Chalke, would be a much better book.

 

[The Masterplan]

Ian Pont's ''Fast Bowlers BIBLE'' is a quality read

 

[archie mac]

Can anyone recommend any cricket related books that actually don’t (intrinsically) focus upon the game itself and its nuances but rather on cricket’s cultural and social significance within society or upon the political climate of its era?

Most South African texts written since the country’s literature Black renaissance have used this approach and they are the cricket books I keep returning to.

Or any recommendations for any cricket books that are irreverent, away from the perceived norm of cricketing literature?

Cheers

The Willow Wand, might be one that you would enjoy

 

[pasag]

Found Alan McGilray's The Game Is Not The Same for $1 at a library sale in East Melbourne (posh library btw).

Very easy read, has the great anecdote of him missing the end of the tied Test to catch a plane with Keith Miller, a lot of stuff on Kim Hughes and captaincy (rating Bradman, Benaud and Chappelli as the best Aussie captains he showers praise on Bradman's technical abilities) and there's also some very interesting stuff on cricket as an art form, describing May and Greg Chappell as the two most attractive batsmen he'd seen. Also a fair amount of stuff on the commercialism of the game and you can pretty much swap ODIs and Twenty20s and Packer and the BCCI/IPL and it'd all be 100% relevant in today's cricket climate.