Many a Slip: A Diary of a Club Cricket Season - Hardcover

Haigh, Gideon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1854108719 ISBN 13: 9781854108715

Publisher: Aurum Press, 2002

Synopsis

Physical description; 138 p. ; 19 cm. Summary; Every summer weekend, in every village and local park, thousands of amateur cricketers don their whites. The weather may be threatening rain, the team a frankly last-minute selection -but a day's fiercely contested club cricket, from the fast bowler's first ball to the post-match beer, is a timeless, indestructible tradition. Award-winning writer Gideon Haigh is one such cricketer, and keen member of the Yarras, a club side in his home town of Melbourne, Australia. Now he has written a hilarious diary of his team's season, a portrait of club cricket that weekend cricketers everywhere will recognise. Here, then, are the salt of the cricket earth: the amply-proportioned Womble, who wields a 3lb bat, usually in the direction of cow corner, and doesn't so much chase a ball as chaperone it to the boundary; One Dad, the Christian fast bowler who celebrates his wickets with a hearty 'Hallelujah!'; and mysterious Space Cadet, who 'seems to place the ball according to the signs of the Zodiac'...This is a club where sides do not get picked but move into alignment like celestial bodies, contending with pitches so waterlogged the bowler has to detour round puddles of sawdusted slush, and light so bad that fielding is only possible by sonar. A modern-day version of England, Their England, Many a Slip is that rare thing, a genuinely funny sports book, and a shows a new side to Gideon Haigh's talents. Subjects; South Yarra Cricket Club (Melbourne, Vic). Yarras Cricket Club (Melbourne, Australia). Cricket - Australia - Melbourne (Vic.) - Anecdotes. Cricket ; Humour. Australia. SPORTS & RECREATION / Cricket.

About this title

Review:

‘Australia's finest cricket writer'

(Frank Keating Guardian)

‘[Haigh's] deftness is equally to the fore in these 37 short and very funny pieces following the club's fortunes during the 2001-2 season.’

(Andrew Shields Time Out)

'One of the best cricket writers of his generation'

(John Gaustad The Bookseller)

‘Haigh is superb on the nitty gritty of the game, as he always is... There's the enchantment of surprise in nearly every piece.’

(Marcus Berkmann Wisden Cricket Monthly)

Synopsis:

Every summer weekend, in every village and local park, thousands of amateur cricketers don their whites and turn out for their club. The weather may be threatening rain, the wicket treacherously green, the team composed of too many last-minute and frankly Hobson's-choice selections - but a day's fiercely contested club cricket, from the fast bowler's first ball to the final post-match pint, is a timeless, indestructible tradition. Gideon Haigh is one such cricketer. As well as being the author of critically-acclaimed and award-winning cricket biographies like "Mystery Spinner" he is, as readers of the Guardian will know, not only a keen member of the Yarras Cricket Club in Melbourne Australia but also chairman of the selection committee for its Fourth Eleven. Now, the columns he has been writing about his club's fortunes "A Load of Hard Yarra", have been collected to form a humorous diary of the Yarras' season, and a portrait of club cricket that weekend cricketers the world over should recognise.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aurum Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1854108719
• ISBN 13: 9781854108715
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160