Cardus: The Shrewsbury Connection
Martin Chandler |Published: 2026
Pages: 37
Author: Hilton, Bob
Publisher: Max Books
Rating: 4 stars
For those, and there are a considerable number of us, who still believe Neville Cardus to be the doyen of cricket writing the ninth publication from the Neville Cardus Archive is something to be treasured, a reminder of the great man’s formative years.
In the past I have been known to begin these reviews by suggesting, from the outset, that those who do not share my love for Cardus’s writing need not bother either reading on or purchasing what I am reviewing. I don’t do so on this occasion however, as I rather suspect that those who criticise Cardus will rather enjoy this one.
The story begins in the late spring of 1912 when, depending on whether you accept the great man’s own view or his birth certificate Fred Cardus, as he was then known, was either 23 or 24. Tired of clerical work he had successfully applied for the position of assistant cricket professional at Shrewsbury School, then as now a public school with a long history and solid reputation.
Was Cardus a good enough cricketer to justify such an appointment, or did he embellish the strength of his achievements in local cricket in Manchester? In the absence of any evidence to the contrary it seems the latter is likely the case, but then the appointment did last four years, so Cardus’s services must have been considered satisfactory.
The headmaster at Shrewsbury was Cyril Alington, a sportsman himself whose subsequent appointment to the Headship of Eton College in 1916 was to mean the end of Cardus’s tenure at Shrewsbury. By then he had added the post of personal secretary to Alington to his CV, and it seems that had he been able to do so Alington would have taken him to Eton with him.
One thing that cannot be doubted is the improvement of Shrewsbury’s cricketing fortunes whilst Cardus was there. The man primarily responsible for that was the former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Ted Wainwright, but almost by definition Cardus must have merited at least some credit. Wainwright had replaced Walter Attewell who had played once for Nottinghamshire in 1891. The Cardus naysayers will enjoy the acknowledgment that, generally, Cardus was happy to lead people to believe that ‘his’ Attewell was in fact cousin William, who enjoyed some success in ten Tests for England.
The book does not, sadly, rely on much in the way of newly discovered information and, as Bob Hilton readily acknowledges on several occasions Cardus’s own autobiographical writings cannot be regarded as 100% reliable. That said others have also researched Cardus’s time at Shrewsbury and there can be no doubt that his life there shaped the man he became and for that reason alone this one is certainly a rewarding read, and it is well served by an excellent selection of photographs and other illustrations.
Cardus: The Shrewsbury Connection has been produced in a limited edition of 100 copies available from Max Books in the UK and Roger Page in Australia.
A number of well respected observers of our game, through the ages, happen to think that Cardus was just a poser – someone who made stuff up while enjoying being a poet in pubs in various places in Manchester from morning to night, after his very lowly working class upbringing.
Is this a fair caricature, I ask readers? That is, except Gideon Haigh who keeps proclaiming how proud he is never to have been to university – instead having gone to the State Library of Victoria – and to have worked his way into volumes upon volumes of impressive sounding “big boys” words. He’ll probably die with a dictionary stuffed between his decaying teeth and another one wedged between the cheeks of his scrawny arse!
PBK, 4 April 2026
Comment by PETER BARRINGTON KETTLE | 1:34pm BST 14 April 2026