Written from the unique point of view of the club chairman, A Year in the Life of Somerset County Cricket Club is the story of the highs and lows of county cricket. Somerset County Cricket Club was founded in 1875 and since then has provided its many members and supporters with countless memories. In recent years the Club has established itself as one of the leading clubs in England, closely competing for honours every season and developing many young players through its age-group and Academy system. The Club has simultaneously transformed its fortunes off the pitch, managing to redevelop the County Ground in Taunton without freighting itself with large debts. In October last year the ECB granted Somerset Provisional Category B status, meaning it can now progress towards hosting England ODIs and T20 fixtures, which will bring many benefits to the West Country. This book provides a captivating insight into the daily workings in and around the Club throughout 2012 as it meets numerous challenges and prepares future plans. All royalties from sales of this book have been kindly donated by the author to the Clowance charity that promotes youth cricket.

As one of the first great wicketkeeper-batsmen Jim played 46 times for England in a career that earned him widespread respect throughout the game of cricket.

Cricket is a very old game in Scotland - far older than football, a sport which sometimes exercises a baleful, obsessive and deleterious effect on the national psyche. Cricket goes back at least as far as the Jacobite rebellions and their sometimes vicious aftermaths. It is often felt that Scottish cricket underplays itself. It has been portrayed as in some ways an English sport, a "softies" sport, and a sport that has a very limited interest among the general population of Scotland. This is emphatically not true, and this book is in part an attempt to prove that this is a misconception. Sixty-one games (it was going to be just 60, but one turned up at the last minute!) have been chosen from the past 250 years to show that cricket does indeed influence a substantial part of the nation. The matches have been selected at all levels, from Scotland against visiting Australian teams all the way down to a Fife school fixture. These naturally reflect the life, experience and geographical whereabouts of the author. The games are quirky sometimes, (and quirkily chosen) with an emphasis on important events in the broader history of this country, notably the imminence of wars and resumptions at the end of these conflicts. But the important thing is that every single cricket contest does mean an awful lot to some people.

Brian Close is a true sporting icon: schoolboy cricket and football prodigy, youngest ever England selection, played for England in 22 Tests over four successive decades, best win ratio of any England captain ever, unfairly sacked by Yorkshire (about which the protests of Yorkshire supporters are heard even now), loved a flutter on the horses, hair-raising driver and, through it all, the most likeable and popular of men. It was not until after Brian Close's death in September 2015 that either David Warner or Ron Deaton - or anyone else for that matter - had even the remotest idea that the subject matter for this book ever existed. Only when the scores of letters which Brian wrote in the early stages of his career to lifelong friend, John Anderson, surfaced did it become apparent that they were of major historical significance in highlighting in great detail the day-to-day events of one of cricket's best known personalities. To many, they will also be of geographical interest as the letters and their envelopes show exactly which hotels he stayed in while playing first-class cricket in this country and in Australia and Pakistan. The details contained in them are a graphic reminder of just how gifted a sportsman Brian was, not only on a cricket field but when participating in a multitude of other sports including soccer (on the books of Leeds United, Arsenal and Bradford City),golf, boxing, swimming and shooting to name but a few. It is over 70 years since the first letters to John Anderson were penned and it is extraordinary that they and all of the rest have survived the passage of time. A remarkable set of circumstances led to them being seen by Warner and Deaton and their astonishment upon sifting through them was all the greater because there had never even been the slightest suggestion that letter writing formed any part of Brian's make-up. The letters, the autograph books which he filled on John's behalf, and the other memorabilia contained within these pages are part of a much wider collection which is now in the hands of the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation. The material selected for this book will surprise and enthral readers..

For most of his professional life Michael Parkinson has been a highly regarded sports journalist. This consistently entertaining collection of his best articles reminds us that his first love is cricket and the people who excel at it. His ambition to play for England was thwarted, but not before he opened the batting with a young Dickie Bird at Barnsley. Along with hilarious memories of his cricket mad father and a lost youth emulating his heroes in street games, Michael Parkinson has written compelling descriptions of great players he has known and the moments or matches during which they became famous. Unsurprisingly, there is an edge to what the author has to say about cricket administrators and the way the game is run; the book is a sheer joy to read and written with the author's easy assurance.