The Reminiscences of Pat Higgins 1921
Martin Chandler |Published: 2020
Pages: 48
Author: Miller, Richard (Editor)
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars
For the second of his looks at Scottish cricket history Richard Miller has stuck with material that first appeared The Courier newspaper in Dundee, although for his subject matter he has moved from Perthshire to the neighbouring county of Forfarshire (now part of Angus), and what was initially a twelve part interview with Pat Higgins.
Exactly who Higgins was is explained in Richard’s introduction. He played as a professional for Forfarshire from 1883 until the outbreak of the Great War, a remarkable span of 33 years. There is therefore much for Higgins to discuss in his interview and whilst, as Richard points out, the contents of his story are mostly benign and non-critical, there is nonetheless much of interest, particular to those with no real idea as to how the game was organised in Scotland at the time.
Much of the narrative contains, inevitably, Higgins’ memories of particular matches and various individuals who figured in them. Two of the men mentioned extend the area of interest beyond Scotland however as Higgins gives his impression of two Yorkshireman who, early in their careers, played professionally for Perthshire before going on to play for the county of their birth and England, Schofield Haigh and Jack Brown.
The most impressive feature of The Reminiscences of Pat Higgins 1921 are the illustrations it contains. Not only has Richard located as many as 22 relevant photographs of teams, individuals and grounds he has, despite the problems often experienced by self-publishers, managed to reproduce these very well indeed, particularly the photographs of the impressive Forthill ground in Dundee that appear on the centre pages of the booklet.
Once more there are only 25 individually numbered copies of this one available and anyone wishing to purchase one or more of the series of booklets can contact Richard by email to Surreymember@btinternet.com
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