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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Cricket
David Mitchell's connection with cricket began when his grandad
took him to Bradford in 1961 to watch Yorkshire play the
Australians. It was the start of a lifelong passion for the game.
Many hours were devoted to helping in the scorebox, playing Owzthat
and listening to Test Match Special. `From Snicket to Wicket' is a
personal, nostalgic and whimsical view of a game once played by
white-clad players with a red ball. Now it is the opposite.
Slipless in Settle is a sentimental journey around club cricket in
the north of England, a world far removed from the cliched
lengthening-shadows-on-the-village-green image of the summer game.
This is hardcore cricket played in former pit villages and mill
towns. Winner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the Year, it is about
the little clubs that have, down the years, produced some of the
greatest players Britain has ever seen, and at one time spent a
fortune on importing the biggest names in the international game to
boost their battle for local supremacy. Slipless in Settle is a
warm, affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which
Andrew Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with
Asbo-tag-wearing all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas
at the tea bar, two types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman
is banned for a month for wearing a fireman's helmet when going out
to face Joel Garner . . .
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