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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Cricket
How well do you know your cricket? Do you think you could be the man at the stumps making the right decisions? Put your umpiring skills and knowledge to the ultimate test with this collection of 300 dilemmas from legendary artist Paul Trevillion. With expert text from renowned first-class umpire John Holder and a variety of complex and occasionally bizarre scenarios for you to adjudicate on, this is an addictive and absorbing read. With questions covering everything from handling off-field incidents to deciding when to signal a no-ball, these sporting conundrums will keep cricket fans entertained for hours. For anyone who has ever disputed an umpire's call, it's your turn to decide.
'excellent . . . covers every aspect of wicket keeping clearly and accurately' - Callum Morin, wicketkeeper at Hadleigh Cricket Club Whether a player or a coach, this is the ultimate guide to developing the skills required to make it as a top-level wicket keeper. In the most comprehensive book on wicket keeping on the market, James Knott and Andrew O'Connor provide detailed and easy-to-understand insights into all aspects of wicket keeping, whether you are a player or coach, and no matter your level. With contributions from some of the game's great players and coaches, including Alan Knott, Jack Russell, Peter Moores and David Ripley, this invaluable guide includes over 65 training drills, a unique 'training on your own' section, and provides clear guidance for coaches who aren't wicket keepers themselves. Clear, insightful and easy to follow, this is an essential guide for improving your game or your coaching methods.
When Andrew Strauss's team seized the world title in the summer of 2011 they finally recovered what had been lost at the Adelaide Oval in 1959. This tale of England's preceding triumph and loss is recounted through the memoirs of many of the star players when England had last been top of the world. Bent Arms and Dodgy Wickets tells the story of English cricket's slow recovery from the Second World War, of its brief time of triumph and of its undignified fall from grace - a tale of fluctuating fortunes reflected upon by great names including Hutton, Compton and Trueman, Lindwall and Miller, McGlew and Weekes. The title refers to the sporting controversies of the time - suspect bowling actions and poor pitches - as Britain declined as an imperial power, and English cricket was hampered by class snobbery, anachronistic fixations and an uncompetitive domestic game.
'An astonishing work of research, detail and revelation. Bulging with information, packed with nuggets.' John Etheridge, Sun 'Superbly researched... His eye for detail never wavers. It's a pleasure to read.' Vic Marks, Observer 'The Cricket Book of the Year: Dauntingly comprehensive and surprisingly light-footed.' Simon Briggs, Daily Telegraph England: The Biography is the most comprehensive account of the England cricket team that has ever been published, taking the reader into the heart of the action and the team dynamics that have helped shape their success, or otherwise. It is now 140 years since England first played Test match cricket and, for much of that time, it has struggled to perform to the best of its capabilities. In the early years, amateurs would pick and choose which matches and tours they would play; subsequently, the demands of the county game - and the petty jealousies that created - would prevent many from achieving their best. It was only in the 1990s that central contracts were brought in, and Team England began to receive the best possible support from an ever-increasing backroom team. But cricket isn't just about structures, it depends like no other sport on questions of how successful the captain is in motivating and leading his team, and how well different personalities and egos are integrated and managed in the changing room. From Joe Root and Alastair Cook back to Mike Atherton, Mike Brearley and Ray Illingworth, England captains have had a heavy influence on proceedings. Recent debates over Kevin Pietersen were nothing new, as contemporaries of W.G.Grace would doubtless recognise. As England play their 1000th Test, this is a brilliant and unmissable insight into the ups and downs of that story.
Sussex and England superstar Maurice Tate's story is one of triumph and fame, controversy and tragedy. In the 1920s and 1930s, the all-rounder was the world's most popular cricketer, famed for his brilliant bowling and broad smile - unlike his infamous cricketing father, whose costly error he more than repaid. In his day, Tate's enormous feet were the subject of a music-hall song, his extra pace considered 'magical'; he's now recognised as the first proper 'seam' bowler. He took almost 2800 first-class wickets and thrilled crowds with rapid-fire sixes and centuries. But along the way he suffered a nervous breakdown at the Bodyline series, and threw beer over Douglas Jardine. After a bitter sacking by Sussex, he became a pub landlord and died in poverty. Recently voted Sussex's greatest ever player, Tate doesn't figure in any more widespread Hall of Fame. It's time to remember this forgotten great of England cricket.
Love him or loathe him, Ricky Ponting is one of the biggest names in cricket, having been at the heart of so many memorable Ashes and Test encounters over the years. Coinciding with the end of Ponting's spectacular career, 'At the Close of Play' is a must-read for all cricket fans.
Born in Bolton tells the history of the 38 first-class cricketers, including 12 Test Players, to have been born in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The first was Walter Hardcastle, born in Great Bolton in 1843, while the most recent are Matt Parkinson and Josh Bohannon. In between there are some fascinating stories of the careers enjoyed by so many Boltonians down the years such as R.,G.Barlow, Charlie Hallows, Dick Tyldesley, Roy Tattersall, Jack Bond, Frank Tyson, Mike Watkinson, Karl Brown, Sajid Mahmood, and many others. Why Bolton has produced so many fine cricketers and is such a cricket stronghold is explained by two excellent contributions from local cricket historians David Kaye and Jack Williams. Each book is accompanied by a fold-out map listing over 300 clubs in the Bolton area and the location of over 100 cricket grounds.
'A superb portrait of the most brilliant cricketer of his generation' Mike Atherton Shane Warne dominated cricket on the field and off for almost thirty years - his skill, his fame, his personality, his misadventures. His death in March 2002 rocked Australians, even those who could not tell a leg-break from a leg-pull. But what was it like to watch Warne at his long peak, the man of a thousands international wickets, the incarnation of Aussie audacity and cheek? Gideon Haigh saw it all, still can't quite believe it, but wanted to find a way to explain it. In this classic appreciation of Australia's cricket's greatest figure, who doubled as the nation's best-known man, Haigh relieves the highs, the lows, the fun and the follies. The result is a new way of looking at Warne, at sport and at Australia. 'Bloody brilliant... As good as anything I have read on the game' Guardian Winner of The Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year
It's Britain's hottest summer since 1976 and English cricket is in a sweat of transformation. The public is no longer interested in County Championship games, traditional touchstone of the calendar. Fans prefer a bit of flash, bang, wallop – or so the experts tell us. Where though does that leave the twenty minor counties – strung out from Northumberland to Norfolk to Cornwall – who for the past one hundred and twenty-five years have fancied themselves the stepping-stone between regional club and first class county competitions? A level of the game seen as either an ex-professionals' graveyard or the last refuge of blazered old duffers is in a struggle for its very existence. And come 2020, the venerable Minor Counties Championship will indeed be blown away, like dandelion seeds on the breeze, replaced by the newly-branded and 'more marketable' National Counties Championship. At least that was the plan. In 2018, no-one has yet heard of Covid-19. What they do know is that this threat to their competition is existential and the modernisers at Lord's are to blame, far more interested in such innovations as a proposed new 'Hundred' than bolstering that which has stood the test of time. Granted full access to committee and squad, Tony Hannan, author of Underdogs – A Year in the Life of a Rugby League Town, spent a season with Cumberland CCC amid the lakes, fells and mountains of Cumbria. And as might have been expected in such dramatic terrain, he tells a story full of ups and downs – complete with one or two surprises. Skippered by former Durham player Gary Pratt – who as substitute fielder ran out Australia captain Ricky Ponting during the 2005 Ashes – Cumberland's expenses-only nomads are nevertheless just one important thread in a yarn stretching well beyond the boundaries of Cumbria. The Wicket Men is a cricket book unlike any other. It draws stumps on a small but fascinating aspect of a pastime whose rhythms and rituals, while endlessly evolving, are rooted firmly in the English folk tradition.
***** A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK & SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER "Felix White's beautifully, elegantly and passionately written book reminds me why I love cricket so much. And reading, come to that." - Stephen Fry "The love of cricket is both communal and individual. Felix has a wonderful knack of evoking both in a book full of life, joy and resilience." - Gideon Haigh "Whether you love cricket or are still confused by the rules of the game, you'll love this. Felix's writing is warm and witty. A joy to read." - Cariad Lloyd Felix White, for reasons often beyond him, has always been deeply in love with cricket. His passion for the game is at the fore on the BBC 's number one cricket podcast and 5Live show, Tailenders, which he co-presents with Greg James and Jimmy Anderson. It's Always Summer Somewhere is his funny, heartbreaking and endlessly engaging love letter to the game. Felix takes us through his life growing up in South West London and describes how his story is forever punctuated and given meaning by cricket. Through his own exploits as a slow left arm spinner of 'lovely loopy stuff', to the tragic illness of his mother, life with The Maccabees and his cricket redemption, Felix touches on both the comedic and the tragic in equal measure. Throughout, there's the ever-present roller coaster of following the England cricket team. The exploits of Tufnell (another bowler of 'lovely loopy stuff'), Atherton, Hussain et al, are given extra import through the eyes of a cricket-obsessed youth. Felix meets them at each signposted moment to find out what was really behind those moments that gave cricket fans everywhere sporting memories that would last forever, sending the book into an exploration of grief, transgenerational displacement and how the people we've known and things we've loved culminate and take expression in our lives. It's Always Summer Somewhere is an incredibly honest detail of a life lived with cricket. It offers a sense of genuine empathy and understanding not just with cricket fans, but sports and music fans across the world, in articulating our reasons for pouring so much meaning into something that we simply cannot control. Culminating in the heart-stopping World Cup Final in 2019, the book finally answers that question fans have so often asked... what is it about this game?
The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, first published in 1979, is well established as an invaluable and unique source of reference essential to any cricket library. This new volume includes full scorecards and match reports from 1877 to 1977. Originally edited by Bill Frindall, this new volume brings collectors' libraries up to date, ensuring they have a complete and accurate record - essential for any truly self-respecting cricket enthusiast.
The Life and Death of Andy Ducat is the fascinating and captivating biography of one of England's earliest sporting heroes. The story starts in the reign of Queen Victoria and ends, tragically, on the hallowed turf of Lord's Cricket Ground during the Second World War. History has not been kind to Andy Ducat, and his untimely death in 1942, while playing at Lord's, is the only fact known by many about this sporting idol. Andy is one of a select band of men to represent England at football and cricket. In football, he captained Aston Villa to FA Cup glory in 1920 and made Arsenal's 'Greatest 50 players'. In cricket, Andy scored more than 23,000 first-class runs and played for Surrey in a team of greats such as Hobbs, Sandham and Fender. Andy was a gifted sportsman with a core philosophy of fair play, which made him universally liked. However, his contribution to English sport in the early years of the 20th century has been forgotten. It is time for a new generation of sports fans to discover Andy's story.
Here is the inside story of Fairfield Books: from its beginnings in the cricket coaching that the 45-year-old Stephen Chalke sought in the autumn of 1993 through the journeys around England and Wales that generated his first book 'Runs in the Memory' and on to the publication of 42 titles. The characters are recalled, the issues involved in creating books based on oral testimony considered, and the triumphs and disasters of small-scale publishing described. There are moments of great humour and harrowing tragedy, of unnerving encounters and unexpected revelations. 'Through The Remembered Gate' tells the story of a journey of discovery. Its author starts out with a desire to write but little knowledge of publishing, and with a love of cricket but no significant contacts in the game. By a series of accidents he becomes a chronicler of cricket's past and an established publisher of his own and others' books. Despite its moments of sorrow, it is a tale filled with joys. Into this rich mix the author adds a little of his own back story, revealing how these journeys into cricket's past have led him to see the world of his childhood with a fresh perspective.
The 150 editions of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack have contained a total of more than 133,000 pages since the first edition was published in 1864. Over the years the Almanack - published every year without fail - has charted the highs and lows of the game, giving its authoritative opinion on the players, the matches and the pressing issues of the day. The Essential Wisden provides the highlights of all 150 years for the first time. From the forthright Editor's Notes by the likes of Sydney Pardon, Norman Preston, John Woodcock and Matthew Engel, through reports on key matches around the world, and features on the game's top players, to the renowned obituaries of people in and around the game, and a range of cricket's idiosyncratic "Unusual Occurrences", John Stern and Marcus Williams distil the Almanack's most significant and fascinating writing into one anthology. With the pick of a century and a half of the best cricket writing from leading writers on the game, including John Arlott, Mike Atherton, Neville Cardus, Gideon Haigh, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and E. W. Swanton, and famous players such as Don Bradman, Denis Compton, Learie Constantine, Fred Spofforth, Mike Brearley and Michael Vaughan, The Essential Wisden provides a fascinating lens through which to view the evolution of the game.
It's hard to believe MONTY PANESAR only arrived on the international cricketing scene in March 2006. His electric performances against India and in the Ashes series saw him catapulted to hero status in a matter of months, and widely rated as England's best spin bowler for 30 years. In MONTY'S TURN, Panesar takes a look at his extraordinary rise to stardom. Taught spin bowling by a friend of his father, Hitu Naik, his first experience of league cricket was with the Luton Town and Indians CC. His raw talent and utter dedication to his craft as a bowler soon saw him signed to Northamptonshire before he had completed his degree at Loughborough. Since his call-up to the England senior squad, Panesar's life has been a whirlwind of headlines and hero worship. The national outcry that met his exclusion from the first two Ashes Tests placed the weight of a despondent England's expectations on his comparatively inexperienced shoulders, but Panesar responded to the pressure with a scorching performance. Famously the first Sikh to represent a nation other than India in Test cricket, Monty credits his religion for his discipline in the nets - and it is this dedication along with his scintillating talent and unique celebration style that have made him a national treasure. He has declared his ambition to be the best, and it would seem that now it truly is time for MONTY'S TURN.
As a toddler, Geoff plays a straight bat with a frying pan, knocking his brother unconscious. They both survive and go on to share an obsession with cricket. From playing as kids in oversized pads, they become recreational cricketers and devotees of England and Notts. Cricket, My Brother and Me is rich in humorous anecdotes and personal memories of 50 eventful years playing and watching cricket. Accounts of early life as cricketers see the brothers trying to emulate their heroes and failing miserably, finally settling for the role of spectator. Memories include the torture and the glory of watching the Ashes, touring abroad and the more sedate joys of county cricket. The book describes the brothers' fraught first encounter with the Barmy Army and later touring as part of the world's greatest supporters' club. Ardent fans will enjoy the serious reflections on cricket and politics and thoughts on the future of the sport. This is a 'must read' for cricket lovers and for those intrigued as to why cricket can inflame such passion.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM CRICKET'S HUGELY POPULAR COMMENTATOR With his infectious enthusiasm for the game, David 'Bumble' Lloyd blends immense knowledge and experience with an eye for the quirky detail and an unending fund of brilliant stories. This definitive autobiography recalls his childhood in Accrington, Lancashire, when, after a long day playing cricket in the street, he would get his chance to wash himself in his family's bath - but only after his parents and uncle had taken their turn first. From being last in the tin bath, he moved on to make his debut for Lancashire while still in his teens, eventually earning an England call-up, when he had to face the pace of Lillee and Thomson - with painful and eye-watering consequences. After retiring as a player, he became an umpire and then England coach during the 1990s, before eventually turning to commentary with Sky Sports. After spending more than 50 years involved with the professional game, Bumble's memoir is packed with hilarious anecdotes from the golden age of Lancashire cricket through to the glitzy modern era of T20 cricket. He provides vivid behind-the-scenes insight into life with England and on the Sky commentary team. Last in the Tin Bath is a joy to read from start to finish and was shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year.
Formed in 1875, Somerset County Cricket Club had a long history of winning nothing when Brian Rose took on the captaincy in 1978. Yet in his six years at the helm they won five trophies and came close to winning several more. With only two further successes since then, those gloriously entertaining summers of Rose’s men – Botham, Richards, Garner, Roebuck, Marks and Denning – remain unrivalled as the Golden Age of Somerset Cricket. Here in 'Rosey' Brian Rose tells the inside story of those years: from his apprenticeship under the extraordinary Brian Close to the sad and acrimonious break-up of the side. Reading his account of it all, it is not hard to understand how his quiet captaincy held together so many strong personalities. Both then and as Director of Cricket in the 2000s, he has been at the heart of so much of what is best about Somerset cricket.
A history of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
This book covers a century of the best, most charismatic and most controversial men ever to don the white coat and stand for first-class cricket. From the great Victorian personalities to the stalwarts of the modern era, such as Dicky Bird, David Shepperd and Peter Willey, this book profile the best of those imposing characters, who can make or break a batsman with the simple raising of a finger.
The mysterious obituary of a woman cricketer in Auckland. A young Australian killer under siege by the police. Sherlock Holmes's extraordinary day at the Oval. These and other stories (eleven of them plus a sub) provide more twists and turns than a thrilling test match. Bob Cattell's second collection of short stories once again takes the reader on a world tour. Linked by the theme of cricket, each tale is shot through with wit, humour and drama. |
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