Blood on the Tracks tells the thrilling and brutal story of the 1974/75 Ashes series. As the 1975 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack put it, “Never in the ninety-eight years of Test cricket have batsmen been so grievously bruised and battered by ferocious, hostile short-pitched balls as were those led conscientiously by Mike Denness.
No other sport offers up stories quite like the ones collected in Sticky Dogs and Stardust. Only cricket allows recreational players to rub shoulders with international stars and even superstars in a fully competitive context, providing them with some of the most cherished memories of their lives.
Britain in 1926 was a troubled country. Revolution was in the air as the catastrophic after-effects of the First World War continued. A General Strike in May soon ended, but it left a legacy of bitterness and recrimination. Millions of workers across many industries were sacked or locked out, and coal mining came to a standstill. Poverty was ......
The best schoolboy rackets player in the country; the Sussex player whose first three first-class wickets were a hat trick of internationals; and yes, he did postpone his wedding to play his only Test for his country on the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll tour of New Zealand; the man who has injected himself as a diabetes sufferer every day for the ......
He is one of the few English players with a first-class average of 40 or more not to have won a Test cap. But for a ruptured Achilles, he was told he would have been called up against West Indies in 1995. After retiring as a player aged 36, he forged a successful career as an international coach, with stints in a variety of countries including ......
A fresh edition of one of the classics of English cricket history, written by one of the game’s most talented and distinctive writers. With a mixture of detail and delight, shrewd assessment and personal appreciation, Alan Gibson tells the fascinating story of the men who have led England in its first 100 years of Test cricket: from James ......
LARA: The England Chronicles is Brian Lara in his own voice, unfiltered and unrestrained. The true untouchables of sport possess a kind of mystery, and Lara – thrillseeker, record holder, genius – stands as perhaps cricket’s deepest enigma, at once a beautifully free strokemaker whose creativity captured an era.
There are few better qualified to write the sequel to Alan Gibson’s masterpiece than Vic Marks, who played under four of the captains of whom he writes and has followed subsequent ones from press and radio commentary boxes. He begins this volume by reflecting on the idiosyncratic genius of Alan Gibson, whom he befriended in the writer’s later ......
