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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Cricket
For many decades, women and girls' cricket has been
under-represented, under-financed, undervalued and lacking in true
organisation. Despite this, many thousands of female players over
the years have fought against the barriers, developed their skills
and fallen in love with this incredible sport. Recent years have
seen an explosion of female participation, broadcast coverage, new
teams, new clubs, new competitions and an undeniable sense that
women and girls' cricket is establishing itself as the most
significant growth area of the game. We've seen full houses at
Lords and the MCG, we've seen the success of the Hundred, the
Women's Big Bash, the prospect of a Women's IPL and most
importantly, thousands of new players across the world benefitting
from everything cricket has to offer. What is needed now, is to
build on these successes, to provide resources and information for
clubs, schools and coaches to start, to grow and to coach their own
programmes. This book is the answer. Lydia Greenway has written a
full guide on coaching, administration, formats, techniques, EDI
and more. Packed with practical advice, the book has original
contributions from some of the most influential players,
administrators, coaches and broadcasters in the world, including:
Charlotte Edwards, Alyssa Healy, Heather Knight, Kate Cross, Ebony
Rainford-Brent, Henry Moeran, Nat Sciver, Isa Guha, Lisa Sthalekar,
Mel Jones, Lisa Keightley, Alex Hartley, Clare Connor, Ali
Mitchell, Charles Dagnall, Katherine Brunt, Amy Jones and more.
Readers of the 1917 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack were advised by
the editor, Sydney Pardon: “Its chief feature is a record of the
cricketers who have fallen in the War – the Roll of Honour, so
far as the national game is concerned.†By the time the conflict
was over, Wisden had carried almost 1,800 obituaries. Test players
like Colin Blythe were far outnumbered by men with a lesser claim
to fame, as schoolboy cricketers were sent out to the battlefields
fresh from their playing fields. Amid the carnage and confusion,
errors inevitably crept in: names were wrong and there were cases
of mistaken identity. Some mistakes have lain buried in Wisden’s
pages for a century: as this book discloses, three men outlived
their obituary by many years. All the obituaries have been updated
in Wisden on the Great War with new information about the
subjects’ lives and deaths, their families and memorials, and
ordered by the year of death. There is a listing of the 289 men who
had played first-class cricket, while the 89 who did not get an
obituary in Wisden are now recognised. The book also lists for the
first time the 407 first-class cricketers who were decorated for
gallantry, of whom 381 survived. Among the men included is an
officer who as a boy was an inspiration for J. M. Barrie’s Peter
Pan, and one whose agonising death on the battlefield is movingly
described in Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That. These men now
receive proper tribute, along with literary names that are already
well-known, such as Rupert Brooke, who headed his school’s
bowling averages in 1906 and received an obituary in Wisden that
mentioned that, at the time of his death, he ‘had gained
considerable reputation as a poet’. The wartime Wisdens have long
been cherished by families whose relatives are commemorated in
them, but the originals are scarce and command a high price. Now
the lives of the men are properly celebrated, enhanced by many
remarkable stories of courage and coincidence. The result is a
poignant insight into the cohorts of cricketers who played the
ultimate game for their country.
THE HILARIOUS NEW BOOK FROM ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED NATIONAL
TREASURES! This is not a book of life lessons. But Freddie Flintoff
has had a moment to reflect and he's noticed that throughout his
four decades, although there's been little method in the madness,
there has been the occasional common thread. The Book of Fred is
filled with anecdotes, observations and the odd opinion all told
with Fred's trademark humour and no-nonsense style. Fred's approach
to life draws on the sublime (his series winning performance in the
2005 Ashes) and the ridiculous (singing Elvis Presley's 'Suspicious
Minds' in front of a live audience), from highs (making the
transition to top TV presenter) to occasional lows (accidentally
upsetting the lovely Bruce Forsyth), from the profane (discussing
Shane Warne's barnet with Hollywood royalty) to the profound (why
'having a go' leads to self-respect). Throughout, Fred shares his
code for success, happiness and a life fully lived - and gives his
readers a laugh, some joy, and (the occasional) pause for thought
along the way.
The Wisden Collector's Guide is the definitive companion to one of
the world's most important sporting publications. It begins with an
overview of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, introducing the original
John Wisdenand describing the history of the publication. The next
section contains highlights and information from each of the 147
editions, including bibliographic details (page extent, price,
reprints etc), excerpts from the best articles, cricketers of the
year, obituaries, and noteworthy events and matches. There is also
additional information of interest to collectors and historical
context in the form of news 'headlines' from each year. The guide
concludes with a section dedicated to the serious collector.
Covering everything from reprints to rebinds and from pagination to
publishers, it is a vital resource for collectors. Affording a
glimpse of the cricketing and historical landscape of the last 147
years, this is an accessible and fascinating volume for cricketing
fans generally and a must-have item for Wisden collectors.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was first published in 1864, and a new
edition has been published every year since then. While
limited-edition reprints of every edition of Wisden from 1864 to
1946 have been published over the past few decades, collecting
these limited-edition reprints is not cheap as each one has
normally been priced between GBP50 and GBP100. Now, for the first
time, John Wisden & Co is offering a bundle of the
print-on-demand reprints of the editions between 1916 and 1919, to
allow cricket lovers more affordable access to this historic book
which forms such a significant part of the game's great heritage.
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