A year ago or so, I found myself a new hobby. A jolly good one too - proofing old and out of print cricket classics. I had bought a recent republication of “War Minus the Shooting” from 81 All Out Publications and reached out to it’s principal, Sidvee.
I’ve known Sidvee for years. The association wasn’t mutual though. I had read his various publications, and followed his podcast for a long time. I offered my help on the next project (I may have begged to be a part of it, I can’t recall). He was receptive, and in not too long, came the draft copy of “Cricket and the Bazaar”, by Mike Coward. Books like these are a joy. They speak of cricket and of a time that has long past. The players may be around, but much of their cricket has passed into lore, a collective memory that is shared by those who actually saw them, and those who think they did after reading books like these.
What’s really fascinating about books like the Bazaar book, and the new one just announced, “The Summer Game”, by Gideon Haigh, is that if you read below the surface, it’s not really about cricket. It’s about the socio-economic state of the times, and how that defined the kind of cricket and its cricketers. What books written today about cricket will be tomorrow’s classics?
And then there’s passages like this from Summer Game,
“The only man not among the wickets was Ray Lindwall. He had arrived with 65 Test wickets at 19 and an awesome reputation, but now there were some scathing remarks aimed at his accuracy and avoirdupois. When his sisters loyally wired him at Cape Town’s Langham Hotel with coverage of his wicketless First Test, he read that the Sydney Sun’s Dick Whitington had labelled him ‘the portly ghost of a once great fast bowler’.”
When I read something like this, my mind goes through the following thoughts:
How can I use a line like this to give someone a back handed compliment? [Suggestion: Don’t try this at home]
What is “avoirdupois”, and how do you say it? [See above]
How can I use it in a sentence? [Nope, I am still failing at this]
Will I ever be able to write like this? [See above]
The Summer Game is FULL of passages like this. A veritable treat. Do yourselves a favour, and get a copy. 81 All Out: The Summer Game
Me? I just hope I can get my copy signed by Mike Coward and Gideon Haigh some day.
H.