This is an interesting book, based on the popular podcast The Final Word.It has a strong Australian slant, as both authors are from that country, but there are some interesting stories within its 191 pages.
Some of them will be familiar to you, others less so. Bobby Peel reportedly urinating on the field is present here, as is unrelated Charles Palmer taking advantage of a wet spot. The chapters are short, so it’s a good book to dip into when you have a few spare minutes. I enjoyed reading about the man who *could* have challenged Larwood, Laurie Nash, who sounds like a character par excellence, as well as Jack Marsh, a native player from the last century.
There are stories from Britain, including Harold Heygate’s only appearance for Sussex and Glamorgan’s Frank Ryan, whose excesses with beer and women made Derbyshire’s Bill Bestwick seem a paragon of virtue. At the age of 21, he still took more than a thousand career wickets.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on ‘Father’ Marriott, whose eleven Test wickets cost just eight runs each and whose 711 first-class wickets exceeded his career runs by well over a hundred. As a school teacher he only played in the holidays, but having survived both Ypres and the Somme he probably considered himself lucky to be able to play cricket at all.
Stylistically it’s written like you’re listening to a podcast, but in this case it might just add to the charm.
It’s an entertaining and fairly inexpensive read.
Bedtime stories for cricket tragedy is written by Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins and published by Fairfield Books
#Book #Review #Bedtime #Tales #Cricket #Tragics #Geoff #Lemon #Adam #Collins