A False Dawn in Nicetown
Martin Chandler |Published: 2024
Pages: 16
Author: Musk, Stephen
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 3 stars
The title is an intriguing one, suggestive perhaps of some 1950s American television drama. Of course it isn’t that, otherwise Red Rose Books wouldn’t have published it, but it is in some ways new territory for one of our favourite niche publishers.
Stephen Musk has, of course, been published several times by Red Rose and, as with this one, one of those books has been on the subject of Philadelphian cricket, but unlike previously this one marks the first time he has contributed to one of Red Rose’s series of monographs. The series is called Monographs on North American Cricket and this is number one of what I anticipate will be several.
But back to that title. Nicetown is not a fictional creation, rather it was the well appointed home of one of the four major Philadelphian clubs, Germantown. The false dawn relates to the outcome of the match that is the subject of the monograph, played in 1885.
The match was the second First Class fixture played by the Philadelphians. The first had been seven years earlier against the Australians from which the home side had emerged with a creditable draw*. The Nicetown match the Philadelphians won, although for reasons he explains in the monograph Musk considers it a third false dawn for Philadelphian cricket.
The opposition on this occasion were a side from England led by EJ ‘Ned’ Sanders, whose only First Class appearance this was. Another member of the side never played in a First Class match in England, but that pair apart the wholly amateur touring party were all First Class cricketers, albeit none** ever aspired to play the game at the highest level and few played regularly after leaving University.
The narrative follows a familiar Red Rose format with an introduction followed by a reconstruction of the game from contemporary sources and the scorecard. The one additional feature are very brief notes identifying the players. The one slight frustration is the brevity of the descriptions of the visitors, some of whom I strongly suspect will have interesting back stories. At the end of the day however this is a monograph about a single cricket match and not a book, and I am very confident that if my suspicions are correct that the individuals concerned will be the subject of future work from the prolific Mr Musk.
As for getting hold of a copy of A False Dawn in Nicetown it appears in a limited edition of 30 signed and numbered copies and is, as ever, available directly from the publisher with a few copies heading for Melbourne and Roger Page.
*This tour is the subject of an earlier Red Rose Books publication from Red Rose Books written by Steve Smith who, I dare say, may feature in this series in the future. http://www.cricketweb.net/books/philadelphia-story/
**Nonetheless several of the tourists were selected at least once to play for the Gentlemen against the Players. The best of them was probably the Surrey all-rounder William Roller, albeit due to injury he did not appear in this game.
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