Many books have been written about cricket, cricketers, the grounds they play on and the tours that the players and supporters undertake during the winter months. Writers on the English summer game have looked at the game's history and economic development, but one vital ingredient has been ignored: the game's geography, and how it has changed from a rural, meadowland pastime into a multinational sport and multi-million pound business, based largely in urban agglomerations.
This volume fills this void, looking at the fundamental geography of cricket, especially in England where the game is played by county sides. Besides looking at socio-economic influences, the book examines the physical geography of cricket, in particular, its interrelationship with the local environment and microclimate, and looks ahead to the likely impact that global warming and altered weather patterns will have on the county game.

Cricket has changed from a rural, meadowland pastime into a multinational sport and multi-million pound business, based largely in urban agglomerations. This volume looks at the fundamental geography of cricket, especially in England where the game is played by county sides. Besides looking at socio-economic influences, this work examines the physical geography of cricket, in particular, its interrelationship with the local environment and microclimate, and looks ahead to the likely impact that global warming and altered weather patterns will have on the county game.

Jim Pleass is the last surviving member of Glamorgan's County Championship winning team of 1948, the first time the Welsh team won the highest honour in county cricket. The Cardiff-born multi-talented sportsman, who was also an exceptional footballer and offered trial games for Cardiff City as a schoolboy, built a reputation as a solid and reliable team player at a time when Glamorgan was establishing itself on the first class cricket scene after the Second World War. In stark contrast to contemporary sport which is too often dominated by money and celebrity, Jim was a hard-working professional sportsman typical of his era, who simply enjoyed the camaraderie and of the game he loved. Yet the man who was born in Cardiff in 1923 achieved something that only a handful of the five hundred or so people who have proudly worn the daffodil-sweater since the Club's formation in 1888, can claim to have also matched, winning some sixty summers after the Club's creation their first-ever County Championship title. Jim was a very lucky man, as the book explains his narrow escape from certain death when he stormed the Normandy beaches on D day in 1944. If it wasn't for the over-exuberance of a driver on another landing craft, Jim would never have graced the cricket field wearing the daffodil of Glamorgan County Cricket Club.

Glamorgan CCC is Wales' sole representative in the world of county cricket. Formed in 1888, the Club at first faced some difficult years before joining the Minor County Championship in 1897. After a series of successful summers, they were admitted into the first-class game in 1921 but this initially proved a massive step for the Cardiff-based club to take, as defeats became more commonplace than victories. However, after overcoming financial uncertainties in the 1930s, and the loss of their influential captain, Maurice Turnbull, during the Second World War, Glamorgan won the County Championship title in 1948 under Wilf Wooller besides providing a series of players for England teams. The good times continued in the 1960s when they defeated the Australians on back-to-back tours, and lifted the County Championship title again in 1969 under Tony Lewis. Further silverware came Glamorgan's way during the 1990s as they won the Sunday League in 1993 before Matthew Maynard led them to a third Championship in 1997. During the 2000s, the Welsh side lifted the one-day title again in 2002 and 2004, before embarking on a successful stadium development scheme at their headquarters which saw Test cricket come to Wales in July 2009 as Cardiff hosted the Ashes Test between England and Australia. Changing Faces - Glamorgan CCC 1888-2012 celebrates the people who have taken the Club on this remarkable journey and who have worn the Club's colours with pride and distinction. Using a series of team photographs and group images from the Club's archives - many of which have never been previously published - this is a fascinating collection that will greatly appeal to Glamorgan supporters and lovers of Welsh sport in general.

Written by Andrew Hignell, the Archivist of Glamorgan County Cricket Club and the leading authority on the history of cricket in Wales, this book recalls these Golden Years in the history of Blaina Cricket Club as well as tracing the fascinating history of cricket in this Monmouthshire valley. Drawing on the memories, photographs and personnel recollections of those directly involved with the Blaina club from the times when coal was king, through the years of the decline in the iron and tinplate industry to the modern years of mine closure and de-industrialisation, Andrew Hignell has not only produced a cricketing history of Blaina, but also a social history of the town. Cricket began in Blaina in the 1850s as the ironmasters used the game to fly the flag for their works as well as trying to harmonise industrial relations and promoting healthy lifestyles. The playing of cricket subsequently developed into a unifying force within the tight-knit valley communities and, as the first team-game to evolve in industrial Wales, it helped to bond and give immense pleasure to the people whose livelihood was dominated by the state of the iron and coal industries. There were good times and bad, yet throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Blaina cricket club remained strong and vibrant. It was a founding member of the South Wales and Monmouthshire League and the club regularly attracted large crowds, sometimes of up to 4,000.

Front Foot to Front Line commemorates Welsh cricket's contribution to the Great War by chronicling the lives of 55 professional and amateur cricketers who left the friendly rivalry of the crease for the brutality and horror of the trenches, and lost their lives as servicemen on the bloody battlefields of Europe. The distinguished author and the leading authority on Welsh cricket, Andrew Hignell, traces the major themes and battles of the First World War to provide a poignant snapshot of how Wales lost a generation of young men who were united by their love of cricket and their courage to serve their country. Front Foot to Front Line not only pays tribute to the cricketers, drawn from over 35 local clubs across Wales, who lost their lives but also to those who returned home permanently affected by their experiences of warfare. The book also highlights the involvement of many characters involved at the grassroots of Welsh club cricket who served with distinction and will be of great interest to the large Welsh cricketing fraternity as well as to those with an interest in military history. The cricket clubs featured in Front Foot to Front Line include: Blaina, Barry, Brecon, Bridgend Town, Briton Ferry, Cardiff, Cowbridge, Crickhowell, Denbighshire, Ferndale, Garth, Glamorgan, Llancarfan, Llandovery College, Llandudno, Llanelli, Monmouthshire, Neath, Newport, Pontypridd, Radyr, Swansea, Usk Valley, and Ystrad Mynach.