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Favourite cricketing literature

open365

open365

International Vice-Captain
This article is my favourite piece of cricket related writing,closely followed by rain men,a book on ageing village cricketers.

whats yours?
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
open365 said:
This article is my favourite piece of cricket related writing,closely followed by rain men,a book on ageing village cricketers.

whats yours?
Click to expand...
Not bad.

Arthur Mailey's description of the first time he bowled to Trumper would be mine.
 
T

Tapioca

State Vice-Captain
Some of my favourite pieces from those available online -

RC Robertson-Glasgow : Bradman retires
Don Bradman will bat no more against England, and two contrary feelings dispute within us: relief, that our bowlers will no longer be oppressed by this phenomenon; regret, that a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal.
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Alan Ross : Schoolboy's hero

Heroes in fact die with one's youth. They are pinned like
butterflies to the setting board of early memories - the time when skies
were always blue, the sun shone and the air was filled with the sounds
and scents of grass being cut. I find myself still as desperate to read
the Sussex score in the stop-press as ever I was; but I no longer
worship heroes, beings for whom the ordinary scales of human values are
inadequate. One learns that as one grows up, so do the gods grow down.
It is in many ways a pity: for one had thought that heroes had no
problems of their own. Now one knows different !
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AA Thomson : We want Jessop
That innings of Jessop's . . . It was not an innings. It was a
glamour; it was witchery; it was thunder and lightning. The Croucher bent
almost double. The steel spring snapped viciously. The ball sped, as
though hurled to everlasting punishment. It was not Ajax defying the
lightning. It was Ajax catching the lightning and insolently flinging it
back in the face of heaven. Fieldsmen who, a moment before, had been
practically leaning against the bat's face, went scurrying back to the
boundary-edge. They were at the mercy of elemental force. For thirty-three
minutes the might of Yorkshire was impotent. Rhodes was a schoolboy. Hirst
a village-green trundler.
Old men will show you the marks on the face of the pavilion
clock which Jessop's second sixer shattered. They will point out the exact
spot in Copperbeech Avenue where the hansom cab was standing at the moment
when Jessop's third stupendous sixer fell through its roof. That crowded
half-hour was hardly cricket; it was divine madness. The telegraph-board
moved like a cinema-film....
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David Foot : One magic hour

Gimblett went out with Arthur’s spare bat. At lunch Somerset had been
105 for 5, then very soon afterwards 107 for 6. Morris Nichols was
pinging them down, faster than anything this Boy from Bicknoller had
ever seen before. Reg Ingle was wishing he’d never won the toss. The
customers were retreating in increasing numbers to the beer tent.

The 20-year-old newcomer hit 101 out of 130 in just over the hour to
win the Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century of the season. At the
time he also didn’t know about such an award, though significantly he
was later to name his only son Lawrence. He was out for 123 in 79
minutes; he hit three sixes and 17 fours.

The Smith googlies made no impression on him. Nor did Nichols when he
came back with the new ball. Harold had probably never played
previously in a match punctuated by the ritual of the new ball. He
soon lost the big, bronzed Wellard, and then dared to score even
quicker than the mightly slogger, even if the sixes were less
spectacular in altitude.
Click to expand...
Michael Parkinson : War of the roses
I once asked him about Tattersall, and he said: "Tha'
could reckon he'd bowl one bad ball a year. I were t'spotter for t'leg
trap. I fielded at backward short-leg so I could see where Tatt was
going to pitch it. If it were short I'd shout 'duck lads!' and they'd
know to get out of the way.

"One Pancake Tuesday Tatt bowled a long hop. I spotted it but I
thought I'd have a bit of fun so I didn't call it. Well t'batsman got
hold of it and gave t'ball a terrible thump. Tha' should have seen
Jack Ikin's face. He didn't speak to me for three months."

"Did it hit him?" I asked. "No, he caught it," Malcolm said.
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archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
A great list that Tapi. You have mentioned just about all of my favourite writers, I thought you would have included a Cardus piece.
 
T

Tapioca

State Vice-Captain
Couldn't find any *really* good ones by Cardus online. My favourite is a piece about George Gunn which is part of a larger article about Trent bridge. Don't know which book it is from. There is something by Cardus about Gunn online but it is nothing like the other article.

Btw, I forgot about Mailey, or would have included it in my list.
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
Tapioca said:
Couldn't find any *really* good ones by Cardus online. My favourite is a piece about George Gunn which is part of a larger article about Trent bridge. Don't know which book it is from. There is something by Cardus about Gunn online but it is nothing like the other article.

Btw, I forgot about Mailey, or would have included it in my list.
Click to expand...

Did you find the Mailey one on-line?

Have you ever read Parkinson describing a young Jack Fingleton batting with Charlie Macartney?
 
T

Tom Halsey

International Coach
Tufnell's autobiography was very, very amusing in parts. For pure knowledge of the game, Richie Benaud's book was pretty good I thought. (Can you tell I'm not a big reader?)
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
honestbharani said:
Among the present day writers from India, I like Rohit Brijnath. He has a good style and makes good points.
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We don't see a lot of the Indian writers here in Aust. but I did enjoy 'Corners of a Foreign Field' by R. Guha. Although I thought he was a bit harsh on Lord Harris
 
sledger

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
anyone read ed smith's book ? or the one by simon hughes ? think it was called a hard lot of yakka or something..
 
Chubb

Chubb

International Regular
Both Ed Smith books are very good. Ed can appear to be a bit up himself at times, but mostly they're good reads.

Gideon Haigh is the best though. Mystery Spinner is brilliant, Many A Slip is hilarious.

It actually made me like Australian cricketers... that's quite something. I wish he'd write another book about South Yarra CC.

My favourite article I read was one of the "My Favourite Cricketer" strand that's running in the Wisden Cricketer at the moment, about John R. Reid. The Tangiwai Test story is very moving as well, although lots of people have written about it.
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
Chubb said:
Gideon Haigh is the best though. Mystery Spinner is brilliant, Many A Slip is hilarious.

It actually made me like Australian cricketers... that's quite something. I wish he'd write another book about South Yarra CC.
Click to expand...
If you liked "Many a Slip" you may like 'Any Old Eleven' by Jim Young with a forward by Gideon Haigh :)
 
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