The Cricket Society 

The Cricket Society and M.C.C. Book Of The Year Award 2011
took place on the 19th April in the Long Room at Lords presented by author and broadcaster David Rayvern Allen. Congratulations to the winner Harry Pearson with his book Slipless in Settle. Please see photos of the night here.

Press release 14th March announcing the short list.

Cricket memory, nostalgia and humour are prominent themes of the shortlist, announced today, for the prestigious Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award 2011. Chair of judges Vic Marks said: “This is a very varied list. In an even year for cricket book publishing there is no clear front-runner. All five books have their advocates among the judges and I anticipate frank and lively exchanges when we meet after the ICC World Cup to determine a winner.”

The competition, run by The Cricket Society since 1970 and in partnership with MCC since 2009, is for books nominated by MCC and Cricket Society Members and not publishers and is highly regarded by writers and publishers . Four years ago the delighted winner, Scyld Berry, hailed his award as “cricket’s seal of literary approval.” Last year a prolonged search of the Lord’s dustbins failed to locate Anthony Gibson’s excitedly discarded winning cheque.

The £3000 for the winner, and certificates in respect of the shortlisted books, will be presented at an awards evening in the Long Room at Lord’s on Tuesday 19 April. A sell-out audience of 200 people will comprise Members of both organisations, the shortlisted authors and their publishers, and many of today’s finest cricket writers and journalists including Members of the Cricket Writers Club.

Click on the book title for a full review by The Cricket Society's reviewers.

The five books on the shortlist (alphabetically by author):

		Now I’m 62, The Diary of an Ageing Cricketer Stephen Chalke; Fairfield Books Of all the writings on our summer game, cricket fiction is perhaps the most difficult to bring off. Many have tried and few have succeeded but this year sees Stephen Chalke, chronicler of the traditional County game, bring to life an aging village cricketer, conscious of the approaching end of his cricketing life and with more general intimations of mortality as well. It is the diary of a single season with flashbacks to earlier seasons but it is also the sketchbook of a life. With delightful illustrations by Susanna Kendall, this is the story of a humble cricketer, a man of our times but one who Thomas Hardy would have also recognised as a kindred spirit.
		A Last English Summer Duncan Hamilton; Quercus Turning from a portrait of a cricketer he grew to love and respect in Harold Larwood, Duncan Hamilton has looked to his own family for inspiration, with his grandfather’s love of cricket being a yardstick to trace the author’s concern about the future of his beloved game. Whether the title proves to be prophetic or not, it means that the style is reflective without being overly nostalgic. The course of the 2009 season takes him the length and breadth of England with cricket at all levels triggering memories and bringing the past and present together in a very personal response to cricket.
		The Cricketer’s Progress – Meadowland to Mumbai Eric Midwinter; Third Age Press The distinguished writer and (much more besides), Eric Midwinter has produced a book that could be classified as Social History, were that not an inadequate term for what is contained within, Conscious of the salient point that to study history, one must needs study the historian as well, the author takes the reader on a journey from cricket’s uncertain origins to its equally uncertain present state. The journey, however, is the point and a skilled and witty mind traces the fortunes and misfortunes of cricketers, not just cricket itself and places the players and the game squarely in the context of contemporary history.
		Slipless in Settle - A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket Harry Pearson; Little, Brown Many writers revisit their youth but it is a hard task to strike a balance between a wistful yearning for a lost Elysium and a too-knowing look at bygone days. In bringing a witty and measured approach to the game of cricket in the counties of the North, Guardian columnist, Harry Pearson has retraced his youthful steps (or more accurately, bus and train rides) to see again with adult eyes that land of lost content. Players of yesteryear and their exploits combine with their modern counterparts and the wider aspects of living today, to produce a book that is not merely an exercise in nostalgia but an evaluation of modern life and the game.
		Following On – A Year with English Cricket’s Golden Boys David Tossell; Know The Score (now Pitch Publishing Ltd) “Where Are They Now?” is a perennial question that has exercised many writers on cricket. David Tossell takes as his starting-point the last England team (before Paul Collingwood’s victorious T20 side) to win a fully International tournament. The fact that the team was an England Under-19 side adds to the interest. Carefully researched, the author intermingles the tournament itself in 1998, with the 2009 season and the cricketing and non-cricketing fates of the original band of teenagers. There is both joy and sorrow among those fates but the writing is never short of quality and the players’ stories are told with sympathy and clarity.
The other eleven books on the long list:
		The Montpelier Cricket Club (Predecessor of Surrey CCC) Philip Paine; Mischief Makers A portion of cricket history is explored here by Philip Paine, as he looks to travel back beyond Surrey County Cricket Club to trace the history of its predecessor. The author lists the problems of research and the surprising lack of solid information from what, in historical terms, is a modern time, together with the conflicting information that makes the cricket historian’s life a difficult one. Despite these caveats, the book may well turn out to be an important source book for any future historical research.
		Fifty Finest - Andrew Bee Can every great English innings since the very first Test Match be collated, assessed and then assembled into order to give a definitive listing of the finest fifty innings ever played by an English batsman? Many said it couldn’t be done; some said it shouldn’t be done but Andrew Bee has taken on the task with characteristic enthusiasm and panache. Using fourteen different subjective criteria, he lays before us those fifty finest innings and ten near-misses as well. Everyone will have their agreements and disagreements and doubtless, the book and its conclusions, will be the subject of much discussion by its readers.
		Peter Pan's First XI The Extraordinary Story of J M Barrie's Cricket Team; Kevin Telfer; Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton) One of the more intriguing facets of cricket is the fact that a player does not have to be the best to be both interesting and of note. Kevin Telfer has produced a biography of such a man in J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan but also the proud begetter of the Allahakbarries; a team made up of friends and fellow literary acquaintances. Diligently researched and with much new material, the book uncovers evidence that Barrie was by no means the hopeless cricketer that he claimed modestly to be. Perhaps only in England and at that particular time in history could such a team and such a man have existed to be chronicled with such affection.
		Swinging Away – How Cricket and Baseball Connect Beth Hise; Scala Publishers Ltd Finally, two nations divided not only by a common language but by two hard-ball sports may be coming together, as this offering from Beth Hise attempts to probe the origins and history of both cricket and baseball. Concentrating on the historians as well as on the history of the two games, this lavishly-illustrated book shows that baseball and cricket may be more closely aligned in their development than previously thought. It is designed to tie in with a major exhibition which was hosted by the MCC in 2010 and will move to New York in 2011.
		Inns and Outs Anthony Collis and Geoff Wellsteed; Square Leg Publications Beer and cricket; two words that have ever seemed to be at their best when twinned. Now, there is a book that satisfies the reader as well as the drinker and player with an exhaustive study of as many cricket-related pubs and inns as possible, with a cricket-related name or sign. Set out geographically, with nearly five hundred illustrated signs in colour, this is a book, long in the making that should please even the most teetotal reader. Part social history, part evidence of the way that cricket has been embedded in English life and a sad illustration of the depredations of the brewing industry; this is a book likely to be relished by cricket-lovers and will provide many an excuse for some additional research.
		The Victory Tests Mark Rowe; Sportsbooks A barely-touched upon chapter of cricket is how Mark Rowe has chosen to open his account with that strange summer of 1945 which saw a victorious but battered country trying to regain some sense of normality after the six long years of struggle. The story of the Australian Forces XI and the representative matches are examined in fine detail and en route, some cherished legends are found to be not as pristine as first thought and many players undervalued at the time and since. The author has tried to set things straight with meticulous research and also includes some digressions on more general aspects of cricket during that half-forgotten time as survivors of the series add their recollections to the author’s work.
		Blood, Sweat and Treason Henry Olonga; Vision Sports Publishing An extraordinary story of one man’s triumphs and tribulations in the course of a sadly-shortened first-class career. Aided by Derek Clements, Henry Olonga lays before the reader the story of his life and the series of events that led inexorably to his principled stand on the cricket field against the excesses and brutalities of the regime that was ruining his home country. Along the way, friends become enemies and enemies become a source of real danger but his faith and his talent for music sustained him then, as they still do now, stripped of his Zimbabwean citizenship with his new life in England.
		Jack Bond Douglas Miller; ACS Lives in Cricket Series The enquiring mind of Douglas Miller gives us a picture of a modern cricketer but one whose career seems even more unlikely than that of many earlier amateurs. Doggedly and confident of his own ability, Jack Bond determined to make cricket his life and the author credits, as does his subject, an ingrained Methodism for Jack Bond’s inner fortitude and equanimity in the face of considerable difficulties before his eventual triumphs as captain of Lancashire. A book about a very decent man, not just a cricketer but a human being and the picture is skilfully drawn out by the author.
		A Long Half Hour Stephen Chalke; Fairfield Books Six subjects who Stephen Chalke has known and admired with more to tell than just their life in cricket. These are genuine character studies which add to the sum of our knowledge of the men profiled and give them a wider context than the mere bounds of cricket. Each subject has a story to tell but also stories that they would choose not to tell and it is the skill of the author to marry the two together to illuminate but not intrude. There are some sharp psychological insights as well as a real sense of humanity and shared enjoyment which bring the characters to life as we follow through the pages.
		The Last Everyday Hero: The Bert Sutcliffe Story Richard Boock; Longacre Can a man who played forty two Tests and never finished on the winning side be worthy of a full book? Richard Boock, brother of New Zealand Test player Stephen, believed it and drawing on the detailed work of Rod Nye who unfortunately died before he could commence the book, has produced a work that examines the worth of a cricketer and his standing in the world, not just New Zealand. Although Bert Sutcliffe was a self-effacing man and an undemonstrative cricketer, although never defensive-minded, the story that unfolds is a compelling one and the book is old-fashioned in the most positive sense. There is a story to tell; it has a beginning, a middle and an end and it is told with skill and style.
		A History of Canadian Cricket: An Immigrant’s Game? Patrick Adams; lulu.com A history of cricket in Canada by an Englishman would normally be viewed with some scepticism but there are extenuating circumstances. Patrick Adams, although English by birth, is the son of Canadians and is himself married to a Canadian. His love of cricket and his heritage have led to him to undertake a general and personal history of the game in Canada. Although more of a voyage of discovery than an official record, the byways covered make for an interesting ride, especially the affair of the deserter from the Royal Horse Guards, the bigamous marriage and the courts-martial; all a part of the life and career of Thomas Dale, a Yorkshireman, living in Detroit and star of the first Canadian tour to the British Isles.