The A-One Bumper and the Beautiful Man
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 16
Author: Musk, Stephen
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 3 stars
This short monograph from Stephen Musk amounts to a double biography, the subjects being a father and son. I doubt however that there are many reading this review for whom the title alone will mean very much.
But the sub-title gives a name to the pair, The Very Different Lives of Eddie and Laird Cregar. Does that help? Probably not would be my expectation.
Another clue comes from the title of the series from which the booklet comes,
Monographs on North American Cricket, but even then I can’t imagine more than a handful of you, if that, will recognise the names.
You will know that of Bart King though, and Dad, Eddie, was a friend and teammate of Bart’s who accompanied the great all-rounder on all three of the tours of England undergone by the Gentlemen of Philadelphia in 1897, 1903 and 1908.
Eddie was, like King, an all-rounder and one who played 39 First Class matches altogether. He was nothing like the player King was, but had his moments and his cricketing story is certainly not without importance to those with an interest in the Philadelphians.
And Laird? He was not a cricketer at all and, given that he was just two years old when Eddie died he probably knew scarcely anything about the game but, briefly, he did become a famous man. A contemporary of the likes of Gregory Peck and Tyrone Power Laird was a Hollywood actor of some note before, aged just 31, he died in unusual circumstances.
The monograph, of course, contains details of Eddie’s cricket career, but less predictably a detailed look at Laird’s filmography. Not all of the films are well reviewed, but I shall certainly be making the effort to watch his 1944 film, The Lodger, described as undoubtedly the best Jack the Ripper film ever made.
As is always the case in this series there are thirty individually signed and numbered copies available from either publisher Red Rose Books, or in Australia from Roger Page.
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